Sarah vs The real Chuck
by sdchuckfan
Summary: Another "what if" story. Sarah thought she knew everything about Chuck but little does she know that she has barely scratched the surface. Takes place before the 2nd season but takes elements from it. Definitely Charah.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I don't own Chuck. I decided to start a new story with a different feel than my other one. Let's say this one is much lighter and more fun. Enjoy._

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WHAP!

Chuck opened his eyes and stared at the fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling of the training center.

"Chuck, what are you doing? Remember what I taught you. Again" shouted Sarah from outside of the matted floor.

"Sorry Sarah. I'll try harder this time" answered Chuck half-heartedly.

Chuck stood up and took his stance. A few moments later he was on his back yet again staring at the ceiling. Casey and Sarah looked on and shook their heads.

"It was kind of funny the first few times, but now even my back is starting to hurt" stated Casey as he watched Chuck get tossed to the mat once more. "Seriously, is this really doing any good?"

"It has to. You saw what happened during the last mission. If he's going to continue to insist on leaving the car, then he should at least be able to protect himself" replied Sarah.

She looked back over to Chuck who has back into his fighting stance against his training partner. The catalyst for all this training occurred during the last mission. The job was a easy one: apprehend a computer programmer named Dexter Whipple who was found hacking into the CIA mainframe. _A simple enough task._

"Chuck, stay in the car" ordered Sarah.

"Yes mom. I'll also be sure to not talk to strangers" said Chuck.

Sarah looked over as her eyelids formed tiny slits. "Not funny. Stay."

Chuck stuck his tongue out and in retaliation Sarah did the same. Childish? Yes. But Sarah was not above fighting fire with fire. It was also a testament to Chuck's influence upon her that she allowed him to see the non-agent side of herself.

"If you ordered me to stay in your bed, then I think I would be more inclined to listen" said Chuck with an evil smile. "That would be an order worth following."

Sarah smiled at his sudden forwardness. She enjoyed the fact that their relationship had progressed to the level where this kind of flirting was allowed. "Well if I knew you were going to follow that particular order, I would've asked you a long time ago" flirted Sarah. "My only concern is if you know what to do with me after you got that order." She watched happily as the confidence Chuck exhibited melted away and went back to awkward state.

Casey and Sarah made their way into the Las Vegas home of Dexter Whipple. They had just received a tip that he would be selling data he found from the CIA mainframe to the highest bidder. Casey stopped at the frame of the back door and motioned for Sarah to come around and knock it in. The plan was to just rush in and take the nerd by surprise, hoping that he would wet his pants and surrender quietly.

Sarah kicked the door in and suddenly sirens and flashing lights went off from the interior of the home. Seeing that they were discovered, Casey rushed in and looked from room to room. Sarah followed suit and started in the back rooms.

Outside Chuck watched from the nerd herder as the home was lit up like there was a dance club inside. To his surprise he watched a tiny man jump out of a skylight on the roof of the home and slide down to the edge. Chuck knew it was Dexter and that he was about to get away. Disregarding Sarah's earlier order to stay, Chuck ran over to the front of the house and caught up with the target. He quickly tackled him to the ground but to his dismay, Dexter pulled out a 9mm and aimed it at his head. Suddenly a shot rang out and a hole appeared in Dexter's hand and the gun went flying off into another direction.

"Chuck! I told you to stay in the car!" screamed Sarah.

"I did, until I saw him making his getaway that is" answered Chuck.

"You could've been killed!"

"Unlikely. I don't know if you know this, but I'm protected by the extremely talented and beautiful Sarah Walker. She wouldn't let anything happen to me."

Sarah stopped the smile that was forming from the compliment. "Don't think that you're silver tongue is going to save you. I won't be around all the time to protect you despite how talented you say I am."

"I know. In those instances I guess I'll have to think of something" said Chuck with a smile.

Sarah frowned at the thought of what Chuck would have to do. As she turned away, she didn't notice the look of relief on Chuck's face as he tucked a knife back into it's holder behind his belt.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Thanks for the kind reviews. Here's where the secret starts to unfold...._

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"Oof." Chuck gasped for air after his sparring partner gave him a knee to the stomach.

Casey winced. "That's got to hurt. Are you sure you aren't just angry at him for leaving the car and now you're having your revenge by making him take this brutal training?"

Sarah smiled slightly. "Of course not. If he wants to leave the car then he should be trained like one of us. That's all."

As they talked, an older asian man walked up to them. "Agent Walker, I didn't expect to see you here again. Coming back for more training?"

"Hello Master Gao" replied Sarah. She remembered how Gao had personally taken her under his wing during her time at the academy and it was solely through his instruction that she now credits her prowess with hand to hand combat. "No, we're here to help train our new recruit Charles Carmichael." She pointed over to his direction just in time to see him take a punch to the chest. "Ouch. Although he doesn't seem to be learning all that much."

Sarah and Gao stood there silently as they watched Chuck spar for a few moments before he mumbled, "Interesting."

Sarah looked over at him, confused. "Excuse me master?"

"I was just remarking how interesting your new recruit is. Quite good isn't he?"

"I'm sorry but are we watching the same man? Charles is the dark curly haired man over there getting his butt handed to him by his partner."

Gao laughed. "Yes Walker, we're looking at the same guy."

"Then how can you say he's good?"

"Because he has you two, and almost myself, fooled into thinking he has no training whatsoever."

Sarah and Casey's eyes widened as they watched Chuck.

Sarah asked "How do you know this?"

"The easiest way of saying it is that Charles is choreographing this fight. Watch carefully; he is letting his opponent see openings in his defense that he wants him to see and allowing him to attack that spot. His opponent thinks that he's choosing the attack when Charles is actually the one dictating the direction of the fight and where he would get hit."

"What for?"

"Probably so that the damage to himself would be lessened. He's trying to pretend that he has no training remember? That means he has to take some hits. This way at least he can prepare himself for it."

Sarah's eyes turned towards the two men fighting.

"Watch him closely. You'll see that his eyes will momentarily look to where the attack will come. Also the part of the body that will receive the blow tenses up just before impact. He knows where his opponent is going to strike."

Sarah watched Chuck and that's when she saw it as well. His eyes looked over to the attacker's right arm a split second before the man even threw the punch. She also saw Chuck tense up his chest a moment before impact.

Gao continued, "If I had to guess, Charles is probably an extremely accomplished fighter."

Sarah was shocked. "How can you say that master? All you've seen him do is just anticipate a few moves. You can't judge his abilities based on that alone."

"No, I can't judge him on that alone. But his eyes say it all; in brief glimpses I can see him formulating his counterattack, only to push them aside and take the impact. You might not think it, but one of the hardest things to do is to feign incompetence when the opposite is the truth. Also I know that he had you into thinking the same way; he must be good to fool someone as well trained as you are Walker."

Sarah nodded. Just as Master Gao walked away, he was replaced by General Beckman. She took a place in-between both agents and watched Chuck's training as well. She had overheard some of the conversation between Sarah and her sensei and was now convinced that the truth should be let out.

"Agent Carmichael. Join us please?" shouted Beckman.

Chuck ran over in front of them and then bent over gasping for breath. "Sorry, just a bit winded."

Beckman rolled her eyes at the slumped form in front of her. "How long are you going to continue this Charles?"

Sarah and Casey were shocked to hear a change in the general's tone. Before it had sounded just like a general's should be: strong, authoritative, and decisive. But now they heard her talk to Chuck in more of a familial, almost motherly, tone.

"I'm sorry General, I don't know what you're talking about" answered Chuck.

"You know what I'm talking about. Are you going to continue to risk Walker and Casey's lives just to maintain your secret?" She leaned in closer to Chuck. "He never meant for you to keep your secret at the cost of others' lives. Even he broke cover, remember?"

Sarah saw as Chuck's eyes momentarily showed a bit of anger but then quickly changed into ones of confusion.

"I'm sorry General. I'm still a bit confused here. What do you think I'm hiding?"

Beckman sighed while shaking her head. "Fine, so be it. If you want to do this the hard way then that's how we'll do it. Back to your place on the mat."

Chuck nodded and went back to the training mat.

"You four over there. Please join in the sparring match with Agent Carmichaels" ordered Beckman.

The men walked over to join Chuck's first sparring partner.

"I want all five of you to attack Carmichael."

Sarah and Casey's head snapped towards the general. They couldn't believe what she just ordered; Chuck took a beating from one guy and now she ordered another four to attack. They both knew he would be slaughtered.

Sarah quickly spoke up. "General, do you think this is necessary? I'm sure Chuck meant no offense to you when he said he doesn't know." Sarah thought that the general was angry at their previous conversation.

"Yes Walker, this is necessary. I'm not doing this for him; I'm doing it for your sake as well." Beckman turned again towards the bewildered group of men. "You heard my orders. Please attack Carmichael." She paused for a moment before continuing, "And I wish you to do it with an intent to kill."

Sarah's mouth dropped. _Intent to kill? _"General! Chuck can't defend himself." She moved instinctively towards Chuck.

"Stand down agent!" ordered Beckman. She looked at two men who were guarding the entrance to the training facility. "You two. If Agent Walker or Major Casey makes any move towards Charles Carmichael, you have orders to subdue them by any means necessary. Understood?"

Both men nodded and pulled out their weapons.

Sarah couldn't believe what was happening. Was this an execution order? Was this her way of ensuring that the intersect never falls into enemy's hands?

"Gentlemen, proceed with your attack."


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Thanks for the great reviews. I decided to post this a little early; enjoy._

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Beckman had just given the order for five men to attack and try to kill Chuck. Sarah didn't understand the general's sudden order for Chuck's execution; she had said it was for her best interest. It was obvious to everyone that he wouldn't be able to defend himself yet here she was ordering 5 agents to attack. She turned towards Chuck and it was at that moment where Sarah felt she had just been tossed into another dimension.

She watched as Chuck waited for the men to attack but as they advanced towards him, Sarah saw the change. The helpless, goofy aura that normally surrounded Chuck had disappeared. Where he normally would be slouched over in a meek position, Chuck was now standing with a straight back exuding confidence. The confusion normally in his eyes had changed into determination. Chuck's aura, which she had gotten used to, was now gone and replaced with one completely opposite. Sarah looked him over again and again, wondering who this man standing before her was.

Sarah snapped back to reality as the five men surrounded Chuck but still he didn't react as he usually did. Normally he would cower back and try to talk his way out of the trouble, but this time he just stood there as if waiting for the action to start. This not only threw her off but also the attackers; not only were they quite confident in their abilities but they also had the size advantage. Each one of them were either taller than Chuck or more muscular than he was but still he stood his ground.

As if she and Casey weren't confused enough, a smile broke out on Chuck's face. As if this whole thing wasn't crazy enough, Sarah could've sworn that Chuck was anxious for the fight.

Chuck looked around at the men surrounding him and said "Sorry guys."

One of the men asked "Sorry for what?"

"Sorry for the pain I'm about to inflict on you."

Every one of the men laughed at what they thought was an idle threat. "Are you blind Carmichael? There's five of us and one of you."

"I know." Chuck's face turned serious. "You didn't bring nearly enough guys to make this interesting for me."

At this point Sarah figured she was Alice and this was Wonderland because she found nothing making sense. What happened next further dropped her down the well.

Sarah watched as Chuck jumped towards the first guy and landed a right cross straight to the jaw. The man had no time to react, no time to utter a word or a groan. Just like that Chuck shook the man's brain and knocked him out. Before the guy even hit the ground, he grabbed his arm and swung him around, ramming him into the midsection of the man next to him who was about to attack. This second guy thought he had an opening while Chuck was busy but was surprised when he was caught. Now bent over after receiving the hit, the last thing he remembered was Chuck's foot right before it landed on the side of his head.

The other three attackers stood there in shock (much like how Sarah and Casey were at the moment) at Chuck's speed. In a few short seconds he had managed to take out two highly trained agents without receiving a single blow. But they knew that the first two men had underestimated Chuck; they wouldn't make the same mistake. With a single nod, the three men started their attack. They ran towards him in a V formation: the first man would be a sacrifice; he would try attack Chuck but would mainly serve as a distraction while the other two came around and subdue Chuck. As he advanced onto Chuck's position, he was amused to see that he hadn't turned around and was still facing away from them; Chuck wouldn't know what hit him.

Or so they thought. As the lead attacker threw a punch, Chuck cocked his head to the left and narrowly avoided the blow. In the same motion, he spun around and side stepped the attacker, rushing the next attacker to his left. The men knew what was happening; Chuck sought to disrupt their plan by attacking them first. It was smart, the men on the flanks weren't ready to fight yet; they were waiting for the lead man to slow down Chuck before they made their move. But now they watched as Chuck speared the man on the left flank and took him out with a punch to the side of the head.

"Well, well. I'd say your chances went from improbable to impossible" mocked Chuck.

At this point the last remaining attackers rushed him; recklessly advancing since they knew their pride was on the line. Chuck smiled and execute a perfect spinning heel kick, taking out the first man. Chuck avoided the hands of the second man who was trying to grab him and put him in some kind of hold. Chuck gave the much bigger man a kick to his right knee and the man buckled. Swiftly moving around and behind the behemoth, Chuck wrapped his left arm around the man's neck and took his right thumb and jammed it into the back of his neck. Sarah and Casey watched in awe as Chuck knocked the man out with only his right thumb.

She watched the whole scene and still couldn't believe it; Chuck had stood his ground as the men advanced to his position. He rushed towards the men and in a span of a few minutes, was able to completely immobilize his attackers. Chuck became a whirlwind of fists and elbows, spinning heel kicks and leg thrusts. His attackers had no chance; nothing they threw at him landed. Chuck was able to avoid everything thrown at him and basically take out trained agents as easy as if they were civilians. Now she watched him stand in the middle of a circle made up of men flat on their backs, every one of them groaning in pain.

Sarah looked at Chuck and saw two eyes looking back at her that she had never seen before. These weren't the eyes of a shy nerd that she knew, these were the eyes of a confident man who was a stranger to her. She kept her eyes on him as he rushed up to Beckman, obviously full of anger.

"Why? Why now and this way? I wanted to do it my way!" Chuck shouted at Beckman.

"Excuse me? Is that the tone you were taught to use with your elders?"

Sarah heard it again; Beckman's tone suddenly changed to a motherly one. She watched as Chuck's face, once full of anger, turned to an apologetic one.

"Sorry Diane. I didn't mean to shout" apologized Chuck. "But I didn't want them to find out like this."

Sarah and Casey looked at each other in shock as Chuck just called the general by her first name and she didn't reprimand him in return.

"I know and I'm sorry Charles that it had to come down to that but you know as well as I do that you cannot afford to continue with this charade. What would he think if he found that good people died just because you wanted to keep your secret? Some things are worth more than others Charles. I do think your partners' safety is worth more than your secret. Right?"

"Yes, you're right. I understand." Chuck looked to the ground as if being scolded.

"Now go get yourself cleaned up and meet us in secure meeting room A."

As he walked off, Chuck turned around to add "But Casey and Sarah..."

Beckman smiled, "Don't worry Charles, I'll let them in on the details I know. I'm sure after that you guys will have a lot to work out."

Chuck acquiesced and continued to the locker room.

Beckman motioned for Casey and Sarah to follow her to the secure location and for the next several minutes they were silent as they made their way to the next building.

Beckman stood in one corner of the room and faced both agents. "Good, now we can talk in complete privacy. I'm guess you two have a lot of questions about what just happened."

Both agents nodded but didn't know where to start. Sarah looked up first and asked "What is Chuck?"

Beckman laughed. "Good question but let me start from the beginning and hopefully you'll find your answers along the way." She looked up to both agents and found she had their attention. "Let's start with something simple. Major, name some of the special operations forces of the U.S. military."

"The SEALs, Rangers, and Force Recon. What's the point?"

"Within every group, there is always a more specialized group to handle situations that the larger group cannot. For example, the Rangers are sent into missions where a larger force would be at a disadvantage and where more special techniques were needed."

"Ok I get it, each branch of the military has a super group" snapped Sarah.

"A simple way of putting it, I guess. But not only the military Walker. Even the CIA has one, correct?"

"Yes, it's the Special Activities Division. The SAD; the CIA's army. They are mainly chosen from the special forces division of the military and are basically tasked with the missions that needed plausible deniability; no way of tracing back to the U.S." Sarah paused before adding "Black ops."

"Excellent. They are given the more vital missions that need to be kept under the radar. Things that we know should be done, but cannot due to political reasons. Now Walker, have you heard of the name Razor's Edge?"

A surprised look came over Sarah's face. "They're a myth, they don't exist." Sarah turned to Casey, who had a confused look. "Supposedly they were the elite of the elite amongst all of the covert agents; they were so good that they would make regular agents look like untrained civilians. That's how the stories go anyways."

Casey asked "Razor's Edge?"

"They called themselves that because they felt that the stability of the world balanced on a razor's edge and they were the ones who kept it from tipping over."

Beckman grinned, "Very good Walker, you do know some of the CIA's deeper secrets. They are the real reason why some in the world call CIA agents spooks. These men were ghosts or boogie men; it was almost as if they weren't even really there. The members of Razor's Edge were trained to be one man armies; they worked without back up and without contact with headquarters. Objectives were secretly sent to them and it was up to them to plan out the mission and acquire the goods they would need to accomplish that mission. Members received no help and no further orders after the first contact. They were given the duty to complete the most impossible missions that were of the topmost priority; those that needed to been done perfectly and without anyone knowing it had even happened."

Sarah crossed her arms. "So what?"

Beckman answered "Well because I met a ghost and you met someone who knew one as well."

Sarah and Casey looked at each other and tried to figure out what she was saying.

"Let's just say I met one of these ghost agents when I was still in Army and my caravan was attacked. I'll spare you the details but this ghost agent broke cover for me and basically took on the attackers single-handedly. I still don't know why he saved me but that wasn't the last time I saw him. He found me when I got stationed stateside and we started up a friendship. Even when I joined the NSA, he always found me."

"Should we know this person?" asked Sarah.

"You should. That ghost agent's name was Jeremiah Bartowski."

"What?" said Sarah and Casey in unison.

"That's right. He was Charles' father."

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_A/N Extra: Ok, big leaps in here. The special activities division (or special operations group) was or is a real part of the CIA (look it up in wikipedia). They recruited from the special forces units of the military and then trained those soldiers in espionage and other special techniques. From what I recall, they worked in 6-man groups and were usually the first ones into the fight. They're considered the most well trained military force out there. Ok, now for Razor's Edge; obviously no such group that I know of. I did make a blatant generalization of spies; that there was a hierarchy to them (regular agents = SAD = Razor's Edge) but in reality the agents and SAD members were just differently trained for different tasks. But since this is the Chuck-verse, my generalization should fit in. If you think this chapter is trippy, wait till the next one where Beckman goes into more detail._


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Thanks for the reviews again. Here's the next chapter where we get filled in on the details._

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Sarah stood in front of Beckman with her mouth literally hanging open. Beckman had just told her and Casey that the Razor's Edge agent who had saved her was also Chuck's father. A large part of her brain wanted to shut down and reset, hoping that the day will reset and go back to normal. "Chuck's father?" Sarah couldn't believe what she heard.

"That's right. Charles' father was a member of Razor's Edge; he was the best of the best."

A shocking thought came to Casey's mind. Chuck's father saved Beckman and visited her throughout the years. "Does that mean you're Chuck's mother?"

A surprised look came onto the general's face. "What? What makes you think a thing like that? Of course I'm not Charles' mother."

"Well you did say he kept on meeting up with you."

"He was my friend and I was married to my job. Nothing more. I was the one who actually introduced him to Charles' mom and my best friend, Jennifer."

"Oh." Casey backed down with a deflated look.

"Well it's good that this came out now. I don't know how I would've explained it to you guys when you saw me at Eleanor's wedding."

"You were going to Ellie's wedding?" asked Sarah.

"Of course. I wouldn't miss it. If you want to know, I'm godmother to both Eleanor and Charles."

Sarah felt woozy after that last bit of information and proceeded to sit down at the conference table. "This is crazy. Ok, before I lose my mind; what does this have to do with Chuck?"

Beckman smiled, which of course weirded Casey and Sarah out even more. "Well when Charles was around 5 or 6 years old, an assassin from a foreign government was sent out to eliminate Jeremiah despite him being out of the game for a while. Luckily Jeremiah was able to take care of him before he got close to his family and was able to plant some false information just in case they decided to try again. But he feared that others would come for his family when he was gone, so Jeremiah put a secondary plan in place."

"Which was?"

"He started training Charles as soon as he was able."

"Training Chuck to be an agent from such a young age?"

"Yes. I was opposed to it and told him that I could assign agents to guard his family but Jeremiah felt that no one could adequately protect them. You see, when you reach the level that Jeremiah and others from Razor's Edge were, you tend to accumulate enemies of the same caliber as you are."

"Of course. Because if they weren't of the same level, they would've killed them already."

"Correct. So he felt that he could train Charles to be better than what I could provide and he thought that the personnel would be a big tip off to the enemy."

"Wouldn't his cover be enough? From what you said, Chuck's dad was able to plant false information in order to hide his family. Why would he need to train him?"

"Even with the foil, Jeremiah believed that one day someone would be able to track him. Plus he couldn't be with his family the whole time to protect them. That's where Charles fits in; he was trained to be a guard, or sentinel if you will, who would protect the family as a last resort." Beckman sighed. "But I agree with you. It was a bit excessive. He even admitted to me later on that he was sure that he had eliminated all traces back to his family, but he wanted the added security."

"But what about Chuck? Didn't his father think about the loss of his childhood? I mean, to teach a child what we know?"

"Normally I would agree, but for Charles and his father it wasn't actually training but more like father/son time. Even after the threat was gone, they continued the training since they enjoyed every minute of it. You would think Charles lost something of his childhood in receiving the training, but from what I saw it was beneficial to both of them. You see, Charles had always been close to his father while Eleanor had always been close to her mother."

Sarah had a confused look on her face. "You said that Chuck's dad was a CIA agent, but aren't CIA field agents restricted from having families? I would think someone as good as him would never start a family just in case they could be used against him."

"That's true Sarah but once Jeremiah and Jennifer met, that all changed. It was a real life case of love at first sight; they had hit it off so well that Jeremiah spurned the rules and regulations. He loved her so much that he quit the CIA in order to be with her." Beckman smiled and glanced over to Sarah. "Sounds interesting, doesn't it Sarah? Career CIA agent giving it all up for the love of his life."

Sarah looked up to see Beckman smiling at her as if she knew what was on her mind. She had to admit that if a member of a super secret government organization thought that a family was important, why not her? But for now she had to work out a few things with Chuck concerning this new revelation. Trying to change the subject, Sarah asked "How good is Chuck exactly?"

"Even I don't know that. But from what I observed and from what I learned from Jeremiah, Charles would easily fit into and excel in the SAD. Jeremiah was a great teacher and Charles was like a sponge, soaking up all the information thrown at him. My instincts tell me that he is probably as good or better than any member of Razor's Edge." Beckman smirked. "Let's just say that it's a good thing that Charles has a lot of self control and an extreme sense of right and wrong; God help us if he didn't. I doubt anyone would be able to stop him."

Casey broke out of the trance he was in and quickly interrupted. "Wait, so this whole time you knew Chuck and didn't let us know? You even gave me an order to eliminate the intersect!"

"What?! You gave an order to eliminate your own godson?" exclaimed Sarah.

Beckman shook her head. "That damned intersect. I wish I could get my hands on Bryce Larkin and take some revenge for what he's done to this family." She looked over to the two agents. "It was Charles who asked me to keep doing things as if we didn't know each other. So I gave the order as I would as if I didn't know him."

"But why?" Casey looked into Beckman's eyes. "I was in the house. I was this close to killing him!"

"One of the many things you will learn about Charles is that he is an extremely good judge of character. He told me that he knew you wouldn't do it and that he would risk his life to prove himself right. Before you even ask, it was also his idea not to tell you of his abilities. At first it was a trust issue but as time went on, he told me he found it harder to come clean with you both since he respected the both of you."

"Did you arrange it so that he would receive the intersect?" asked Sarah.

"How could you suggest such a thing? Of course I didn't arrange it. Charles was finally living a normal like he had longed for and then his supposed friend Larkin got him drummed out of Stanford. It nearly killed me when I found out who received the intersect and you know as well as I do that the information contained within it is more important than one person, no matter who it is."

Casey looked confused. "But the way you've treated him and talked about him, I can't believe you actually care for him let alone be his godmother."

"I see. You have my public persona and private one quite confused. Privately, Charles and Eleanor mean the world to me; it's through them that I sometimes feel what it would be like to have kids. There's nothing I wouldn't do for them; I would give my life for those two. But publicly I'm a director in the NSA. I can't afford to be seen as soft or caring. People want to see strength and toughness when it comes to their defense and well-being. So that's the role I play."

"But still, I can count on one hand how many times you've actually called him by name. Most of the time it's either 'asset' or 'intersect'."

"I know but that was also a combination of my public persona and a promise Charles made me make." Beckman pointed to both Casey and Sarah. "But mostly I used those terms to impress upon you two the importance of the mission you both were tasked with. This isn't a game; Charles is the receptacle for all of the top secret information that both the CIA and NSA have collected since their inceptions. Sometimes niceties will have to be skipped and unfortunately there a few things are more important than family."

"I understand, ma'am."

Beckman saw that Sarah wanted to ask something else. "What is it? You have something on your mind Sarah?"

"Well I just wanted to know how good Chuck at deception."

"Excuse me?"

"How good is Chuck at deceiving other people?"

Beckman smiled. "No, what you really want to ask is if Charles really likes you or was he seducing you in order to manipulate you."

Sarah blushed.

"Sorry but I can't answer that. That's something between the two of you to discuss and you to figure out. But I can tell you this: despite his training, Charles despises deceiving people. It's totally out of his character; even now he's having a hard time not being able to tell Eleanor and his friends about the intersect. It's just not in his nature to take advantage of people like that."

Casey asked "So the social awkwardness, the clumsiness, the overall nerdiness; was that all part of his cover?"

Beckman smiled. "Well the clumsiness, yes. I guess he figured that no one would suspect he was this well trained if he had two left feet. As for the nerdiness and social awkwardness, that's Charles through and through. No amount of training from Jeremiah would get that out of his system." Beckman sighed. "Not that I didn't try at every instance. I told Jeremiah that it was a bad idea to take Charles and Morgan to Comicon; that's where it started." Beckman sighed and then continued. "You both have to understand the difference between your philosophy and his. You are both trained as agents and have a cover in order to protect your real lives; for Chuck, he uses his real life to cover the fact that he's trained as an agent. With him, what you see is what you get, personality-wise that is."

"That's quite amazing that despite all his abilities, it hasn't gone to Chuck's head."

"He is quite special. But you don't me to tell you that, do I Sarah?"

Sarah blushed again but steeled herself and asked Beckman the question plaguing her. "So if I had started a relationship with Chuck, you wouldn't have disapproved?"

Taking a moment to carefully consider her response, she answered "General Beckman of the NSA would have you reassigned immediately." Beckman watched Sarah frown. "Diane, Charles' godmother, would be delighted in the fact that Charles found someone to care for and someone who cared for him. You see, he's been alone in this espionage game for a long time. He has Eleanor and Morgan, but they can only take him so far. My hope as his godmother is that he finds someone who loves him for who he is and is not bothered by what he can do. You wouldn't happen to know anyone by chance Sarah?"

Sarah smiled at the needling from Chuck's godmother. But something still plagued her. "How will I know if he trusts me? I mean, he didn't trust me enough to tell me about what he can do."

"There lies the dilemma with relationships between spies: how do you know if you can trust the other? That's for you to figure out." Beckman turned towards the door. "I'll tell you one thing, ever since that whole Jill debacle Charles is not apt to giving his heart to just anyone. All you need to figure out now is if you have his heart. Understand Sarah?"

Sarah nodded.

"Good. Charles will be here soon and I'm sure you three will have a lot to talk about. I'll be in touch."

"Thank you ma'am."

* * *

_Extra: Yup no Chuck yet; he'll be back soon. As for the Charah action, there's been a little hint here and there but just hold on till the next chapter; that's where it'll get interesting._


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Since everyone asked so nicely, here's the chapter you've been waiting for: Chuck's conversation with Casey and Sarah. Enjoy!_

* * *

Chuck stood outside of the conference room door. He had just come back from the locker room after his godmother Diane told him that she would explain why he was able to do what he could do to Sarah and Casey. Although that did relieve some of the pressure upon him, he still dreaded the main question that they were sure to ask: why didn't he tell them about his training?

Beckman stumbled across Chuck who was lost in thought outside of the room. "Earth to Charles. Come back to us."

"Oh hi Diane. Sorry, just trying to think of what to say to them."

"That's good. I'm sorry that I had to let them in on your secret but how the situation is getting more and more complicated, we'll need all the expertise we can get to handle the situation. I couldn't allow you to keep up the charade any longer when the lives of people you care for are on the line. Understand?"

"Of course. Thanks again Diane."

"No problem Charles. I'm relieved that I can finally call you and your sister up without having to worry about your secret."

"Yeah actually Ellie has been wondering why you haven't been picking up your phone. She's been wanting to ask you to give her away at the wedding."

Beckman started tearing up. "I'll call her and let her know I would be honored to. Well, hurry it up then. You have two people waiting in there to hear what you have to say."

Chuck took a deep breath in and then slowly opened the door. Inside waiting for him were the two people he trusted the most; his partners and friends. He walked in and came face to face with Sarah and Casey. After a few seconds of silent staring, Chuck spoke up. "Hey guys." Still the two agents looked at him blankly. "Quite a day we're having huh?" Chuck rocked back and forth on his heels. "So...."

"Were you ever gonna tell us?" asked Sarah.

"About what?" replied Chuck coyly.

"Don't act cute; you know what I'm asking. About you being trained as an agent. Actually trained by the elite of the elite agents."

"Oh that. I was going to get to it eventually." Chuck started fidgeting around. "Ok, here's the thing. I wanted to tell you early on but I never had the guts to do so. As time went on, it got harder and harder to bring it up. The other thing is that I like having you guys around. If the higher ups found out about my training they might insist that you guys be shipped out since I could technically protect myself."

"So you let Walker and I risk our lives saving you when the whole time you could've done the missions on your own?"

Chuck looked shocked. "No, I would never risk your lives. Truthfully there weren't many times where I didn't believe that you guys had everything under control. So I never really faced the situation where I had to break my cover."

"So you also trust Walker and I that much that you would risk your own life?"

"Of course. I thought you knew that. I would gladly entrust my well being with either of you."

Casey was taken aback by Chuck's admission. He knew that they were getting close but he didn't realize that Chuck trusted him to that extent. Feeling quite uncomfortable with Chuck's frankness, Casey sought some time to himself to re-evaluate Chuck. "I'll see you guys tomorrow then."

"What? You're not going to grill me about what I can do or grunt angrily at the fact that I didn't tell you till now?"

"No, of course not. I know that everyone needs to keep secrets; I have plenty of my own. Besides, I don't need to be angry; I'm pretty sure Walker here will be angry enough for the both of us." Casey let out an evil laugh. "Have fun you two!"

Chuck watched as Casey walked out the door and shut it behind him. Truth be told he'd rather have Casey in the room as to prevent Sarah from attacking him. "So I guess it's just you and me, Sarah." Chuck was starting to worry if Sarah was going to forgive him.

"I need some time to think Chuck. This is a lot to process" said Sarah.

"I understand. Dinner?"

"Fine. Seven at my place."

"I'll see you then." Chuck watched as Sarah walked out of the room and a feeling of dread came over him as he realized that Sarah was probably wondering how far she could trust him. He knew that she had been hurt by Bryce before and this was just as bad.

* * *

Chuck walked into Sarah's hotel room juggling a pizza and a bouquet of gardenias in one hand and the drink in the other. Sarah gave him a suspicious look as he handed her the flowers.

"Here these are for you. Gardenias. Your favorite right?" said Chuck with a smile.

Instead of accepting them happily, Sarah took them and turned back to Chuck still with a suspicious look on her face.

"And a vegetarian pizza, no olives." Chuck noticed the same look as before. "Ok what is it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Sarah.

"That look. That look. The suspicious look you have on your face. You know when you slit your eyes like that and your lips turn into a thin straight line"

"I did not have a suspicious look" said Sarah as she turned away from Chuck.

"Yes you did. First when I gave you the flowers and just now when I showed you the pizza. So spill it. What's wrong?"

A few moments passed before Sarah answered. "I'm just curious."

"About?"

"Your training. Did it include human manipulation?"

"Huh?" said Chuck while he scratched his head.

"Seduction training Chuck. Did your dad teach you how to seduce the opposite sex?"

"Oh. Yeah he went over it but it got kind of uncomfortable talking to my dad about that so we kind of just glanced over it." It was then that Chuck realized what Sarah was really asking. "Wait, you think that I am seducing you?"

Momentarily deep in thought, Sarah answered "The idea did cross my mind."

"You know me Sarah. I would never do that. Especially to you" confessed Chuck, who was hoping it would quell her fears.

"Well yesterday I thought you were a lovable nerd but today I came to find out that you were more than that."

"I'm not sure if Diane told you this, but I don't like deceiving people unless I have to."

Sarah remembered that Beckman did tell her this but still it didn't sit right with her. "So how am I supposed to know that you aren't trying to seduce me right now?"

"What?"

"You come in here with my favorite flowers and pizza just the way I like it. Seems like your trying to seduce me right now." Sarah looked him up and down. "You're trying to get into my pants aren't you?"

Chuck staggered from the question for a second. "No, no of course not....well, yes kind of. But not if you don't want me in them." Chuck blushed and shook his head. "I'm just doing what any guy would do if he was trying get a girl. Besides, it's not much of a seduction if you know its coming."

"Sure. And what's that in your hand?"

"This?" said Chuck as he raised the bag in his right hand. "This is the stuff I need to make a caipirinha; it's like a mojito except it uses limes instead of mint. Seeing that you like mojitoes so much, I thought you'd like it."

Sarah's eyes narrowed once more.

"See! There again with the suspicious eyes!" shouted Chuck as he pointed wildly at her face.

"You're trying to get me drunk aren't you? Is this part of your seduction plan? Get me drunk and more receptive to your advances? I'm on to you Bartowski!" shouted Sarah.

"That's crazy talk Sarah! Besides it wouldn't be a seduction if you were willing in the first place!"

Sarah countered "Willing? Well then, how do I know you really like me? Huh?"

"Seriously? I would think by now you should now how I feel about you by now." Now Chuck was getting angry that Sarah was questioning his feelings for her. "If anything, I should be suspicious of you!"

"Why's that?"

"Well aren't you the one who tried to seduce me with that lame pick up when I first got the intersect?"

"Lame?!? It was not lame." Sarah crossed her arms and faced away.

"My phone is broken. Please help me. I think my phone is broken cause I haven't received a call from you" mocked Chuck in a high pitched voice.

"I do not sound like that" exclaimed Sarah. "Besides if I remember correctly I hand you wrapped around my finger from the start, Mr. Superspy."

"You did not!"

Sarah stared at him.

Chuck acquiesced. "Fine! You might have. It's not often that a beautiful woman walks into the Buymore and flirts with me. But I did know you were an agent from the minute you walked into the store."

"How?"

"Hello? Like I said, it's not often that a beautiful woman flirts with me. I didn't even need any training to know something was up."

"I give you that one."

"Also how do I know that you aren't using your feminine wiles to make me stay in the car?"

Sarah smirked "I guess I would be the worse seductress ever. Since when did you ever listen to me and stayed in the car!"

Chuck had to admit that she got him there. "You have to know that I like you right? Why are you questioning it now?"

"Let's see. Probably because you didn't let me in on your big secret."

"Even Morgan doesn't know about my secret and I've known him for a much longer time." Chuck turned away from Sarah. "So you're telling me that you don't have secrets from me S-A-R-A-H?"

She knew Chuck was right. She hadn't even told him her real name and here she was asking him to reveal something much bigger. "Ok. You got me. But what you were holding back is a lot more important than what my real name is."

"I know I was." Chuck's tone softened; he knew what this fight was really about. It wasn't about their feelings for each other but that Sarah doesn't believe he trusts her. "But seriously, I've been holding this in for a long time. After my father left us, he asked me to keep it secret just by the off chance someone did come looking for his family. Although nothing ever happened, I feel I owed it to him to keep it a secret."

Sarah sighed in relief. "I understand what it means to keep a secret but still I thought you trusted me."

"I do trust you. I tried to tell you several times but it always seemed to be interrupted by someone or something. After a while I just got scared what you would feel about me."

"Who, me? Why would that change how I feel?"

"I don't know. I was worried that you fell for the nerdy, uncoordinated Chuck. Maybe once you found out my secret you wouldn't like me anymore since I'm more Bryce-like than you originally thought."

"Listen Chuck, my feelings have nothing to do with what you can or cannot do. Whether you're Steve Urkel or Jason Bourne, it doesn't matter to me. My feelings are based on who you are, plain and simple." Truthfully Sarah was even more impressed and infatuated with Chuck now than ever before; he was able to maintain his positive outlook on life despite living with what he knew of the espionage world. He didn't become jaded like so many other agents before him. Sarah watched a wave of relief passed over Chuck. "How about your sister?"

"Who, Ellie?" Chuck's face turned serious. "The Archangel of Antwerp? The Death Diva of New Delhi? The Shining Sword of Shanghai? The Grey Ghost of Glasgow? She's even better at espionage than I am."

"What?!? Really?"

"No, not really. She's a doctor." Chuck fell on his back laughing at Sarah.

"Chuck, this is not the time to be joking with me. I'm still under the impression that I have literally dropped into the twilight zone."

"Sorry."

"Does she know?"

"About me? Yes and no. She knows that Dad was an agent for the CIA but she didn't know he was part of an ultra-covert group. She knows that I received some training as well but even she doesn't know my full capabilities."

"And here I thought you two shared everything with each other."

"We do. She does know that I can do more than just fix computers which is why she's been on my case every moment for the last 5 years to make something of myself. As to specifics, Dad asked her not to pry too much into it."

"Can I ask what happened to your parents?" Sarah regretted asking the question as soon as the words left her lips. She saw Chuck's shoulders slump and his demeanor change. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to delve into something bad."

"No, no. You have a right to know; let's just save that one for some other time ok?"

"Ok Chuck." Sarah changed the topic. "So why did Beckman insist on revealing your secret now?"

Chuck fell back on the bed and looked up into the ceiling. "She's been pressuring me for a while now to let you guys know and become a temporary CIA field agent. The threat from Fulcrum has been escalating and she feels that the addition of my talents to the team would help sway the balance of the power more to our side."

"What about using the other members of Razor's Edge to deal with Fulcrum? I'm sure that they would totally demolish them."

"She asked me about that one time but from what I found they all have been tasked with missions of equal importance to the Fulcrum problem. Even they are spread pretty thin nowadays, not that there are many of them in the first place. Besides, only the president can task them for missions. So for the most part, I'm the only one with similar training left to handle Fulcrum."

"I have to admit that it would help out a lot if you are as good as Beckman says you are. But are you sure of this? You've successfully lived as a spy outside of the spy world. Do you want to get sucked in now?"

Chuck played with his hands for a second while trying to think of an answer. "Do you plan on leaving the CIA anytime soon?"

The question caught Sarah by surprise. "No, not for a few more years. I still feel the need to serve my country." She paused as she stared to the floor. "But truthfully as I've spent time with you, I've gotten the feeling that I'd want to end my career and start a family while I still can." Sarah gave him a coy smile.

Chuck smiled back. "In that case, I guess I'll be in the service for as long as you are in it."

Sarah's eyes grew watery and she gasped at the implications of the last words spoken; she realized that they had just gotten engaged. Chuck basically just told her that he wanted to be by her side from now on and she just told him that she wanted to start a family with him. Sarah was admittedly afraid; she hadn't verbalized her love of Chuck before and this was the closest that she had gotten so far. Trying to steer the conversation to less uncomfortable subjects, Sarah asked "So where do we go from here?"

"I don't know about you but I'm going to start with the pizza and booze. You're free to join me unless you still think I'm trying to seduce you."

She laughed and smiled. "Sounds good to me. Like you said Chuck, it's not seduction if I'm willing. And it seems tonight I have a feeling that I'll be showing you how willing I am." Sarah gave him an evil smile. She then laughed as she watched Chuck's eyes expand to the size of saucers as he hopped around the room choking on the ill-timed bite of pizza.

* * *

_A/N Extra: There's more conversation between Chuck and Sarah in the next chapter. Hoped you liked it. Thanks again for reading._


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: You didn't think I would end Chuck and Sarah's conversation just like that, did you? It's a good chance for them to come clean. Enjoy._

Chuck and Sarah sat on her bed facing each other. They were still half way into their pizza and conversation was once again light and fun as compared to the start of the night. Even though Chuck had answered her initial questions to her satisfaction, Sarah had more she wanted to know about.

"Ok Chuck, there is something I want to say and questions I want to ask you."

"Ok, but what do I get in return?" flirted Chuck. "As you know, information doesn't come cheap."

Sarah fluttered her eyelashes. "My gratitude?"

"Yeah, that'll get you only so far" said Chuck sarcastically. "Since I had to reveal my secrets, I get to ask you about yours."

Sarah thought hard for a few seconds but relented in the end. "Fine. I guess you deserve to know more about me." Sarah paused for a second and then started off. "I've been holding this in for this whole time and I finally want to let it out."

"Ok, shoot."

"Beckman is your godmother?!?" exclaimed Sarah. "Holy crap Chuck! This whole time you know Beckman and not only that, she was your godmother? I thought she was a by the book, no nonsense boss and now I find out that she's a loving person who would do anything for you and Ellie? Do you know how weirded out I was and still am? I mean seriously, I can't seem to wrap my head around it at all!"

Chuck laughed as he watched Sarah shake her head as she tried to accept the concept of Beckman as his godmother. "Yeah I guess if I were in your shoes, it would be a lot to take in." Chuck moved over next to her and rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. "After my parents...left me and Ellie, we had no one to turn to. We had no family and we couldn't burden our friends. Diane came in and took care of us. She paid for us to get through school and took care of our living expenses. Ellie and I owe her a lot."

"That was generous of her."

"I know. It's hard for you to probably accept this now since you've only met her as General Beckman, but Diane is a really loving and caring person. But in order to protect the country she loves, she's been forced into taking on the role you see her in now."

"I don't know if I'll ever get over her being your godmother."

"Well, don't worry too much about it. Ellie and I don't get to see her that much now that she has all these responsibilities within the NSA. Lately we've been communicating through emails and long distance phone calls. So you don't have to be afraid of her popping up for dinner or anything."

Sarah took a deep breath and decided to move on. "Ok Chuck let's get started. First question: if you are so good at reading people as Beckman says you are then how come you thought I was a double agent during that mission with Dr. Zarnow?" Sarah stared at him for a second before adding "Did you know how much that hurt? I thought you trusted me."

Chuck remembered the mission: he was to meet with Zarnow in order to have the intersect removed but it turned out he was a bad guy. Along the way he accused Sarah of being a double agent, all thanks to Casey's paranoia. "I know and I'm sorry. But realistically we only known each other for a couple of days and like I told you before, I flashed on your ring which showed me the video footage of you killing a couple guys. Also Casey kept on feeding me information that in hindsight I misinterpreted. Sorry if the spidey-sense was miscalibrated."

"Ok, apology accepted. This time" replied Sarah with a sinister grin.

"My turn. During that same mission you said that 'Sarah' wasn't your real name."

"Yeah, yeah. You want to know my real name?"

"If you would be so kind."

"Why does it matter to you?"

"It doesn't really. I know you as 'Sarah' and even as we grow old together I'd still probably call you 'Sarah.' But since that's one of your big secrets, it would be nice to know."

Sarah smiled as he mentioned them growing old together. "Fine. It's Jennifer. Jennifer Lisa Burton."

"Jennifer?" Chuck looked Sarah up and down. "Nope, still like 'Sarah' better."

"Yeah, I like 'Sarah' as well." She smiled. "My turn. Did you know you were getting recruited for the CIA out of Stanford by Dr. Fleming before we had that mission up there?"

"No, by that point it had been some years since my dad left and we had finished up the training. I tucked the training away and tried to live a normal life; so I wasn't paying that much attention to it. I thought it was a class like any other."

Sarah remembered that Beckman said that Chuck absorbed the training with his father like a sponge and she wondered if that had any correlation to his ability to assimilate the intersect. She figured that it wasn't important for the moment. "And Bryce?"

"What about him?"

"You were friends with him throughout college. Couldn't you tell that he was an agent or that he was going to betray you?"

Chuck looked down into his hands. "No. I trusted him. Besides that he was good at deception. Almost as good as Jill. That was going to be your next question right?"

Sarah nodded.

"I let my guard down with both Bryce and Jill. It was a combination of relaxing too much after years of training and their ability to deceive others. If I had been alert I probably would've picked up something but honestly Stanford was one of the best times of my life. I hadn't left home before to live on my own and it was a new experience." Chuck and Sarah shared a sad look.

"Don't beat yourself up over it Chuck. Bryce fooled both of us. Lying to others seems to be his special gift."

Chuck smiled as his turn came up again. "Let me think. Tell me about your family."

"Not much to tell. I don't have any siblings. My mom left my dad when I was still a baby and he raised me."

"Keep going. I know there's something more."

"What are you looking for?"

"A reason to why you joined the CIA."

"Fine. My dad was a con artist. He conned the wrong group of people and ended up going into CIA custody for his own safety. That's how I met Graham; he recruited me."

"I thought it would be something like that."

"Ok, now something hard: what about Lou?"

"Who?"

"Chuuuuck." Sarah looked at him with deadly eyes.

"Ok ok. What do you want to hear? I really did like her; she was the second woman in my life to actually hit on me."

"Who's the first?"

Chuck raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah" said Sarah as she blushed. "But why? I thought you liked me?"

"I did and I do, but you lied to me."

"When?"

"When we were under the effects of the truth serum." Chuck saw that Sarah was trying to look innocent. "And don't say you weren't lying. I know you probably got trained to withstand its effects just like I was."

Sarah's form slumped.

"It hurt to hear that you thought that there could be nothing between us at the time. What made it worse was that I knew you were lying."

"So that's what prompted you to fake break up what ever we had?"

"Yeah. So when Lou came along, I thought it would be nice to see someone else for a change in order to get my mind off of you."

Sarah stared into the bed in front of her.

"But no matter what I did you always seemed to be at the front of my mind, with or without your help."

"My help?"

"You know what I mean. That green eyed monster that came out to mess up my date with Lou at the club. And then how you were somewhat clingy around me."

"Uhh..."

"Yeah thought so."

"Hey, I'm not the only one who was jealous." Sarah gave him a smile. "I could've sworn someone here was green eyed when Bryce came back."

"Why wouldn't I be? He was your ex-boyfriend who you thought was dead but now was alive; I was unsure what you felt for him or what you felt for me. Then when I saw you two kiss...."

"Not my finest moment." A smirk formed on Sarah's face. "You know you could've fought for me. And now that I know about your abilities, I'm sure you would've won."

"Actually I was considering beating Bryce up in Casey's apartment and then again in the home theater room when he was changing. Luckily I exhibited some control."

"Did you know that he asked me to leave with him?"

"Yeah, I knew something was up and Casey also kindly told me that I might not see you again."

"I see. So you know that I was close to leaving."

"I had a hunch."

"You didn't stop me?"

"Well I tried but you didn't pick up your phone."

"You could've broken into my hotel room and forced me to stay."

"Yeah, that would've gone well. Besides you stayed anyways."

"I did; although somewhat reluctantly."

"I remember. Could you have been meaner to me?"

"Sorry bout that. I was really confused and I didn't mean to strike out at you like that."

"Ok enough with the heavy stuff. What's done is done and now we're in a better place. Ok now for my question. At what moment did you know you liked me?"

Sarah gasped a bit. She was hoping that it wouldn't come up. Not that it was a secret, but it was a bit embarrassing for her to bare it out there. "What do you mean? You mean like or like-like?"

"You're stalling. You know what I mean. When did I stop being an asset and started being more for you?"

"From the start ok? You were never just an asset to me." Sarah could feel herself blushing; she never felt so open or bare before. "At first I thought you were a bit goofy with the whole 'Vicky Vale' thing and then the stuff about your names. But you got me when I saw you handle the problem with the little ballerina and said those nice things to her. Our date just sealed it; I never had that much fun before and just to let you know, most of the time I wasn't using my cover."

"I knew it. You couldn't resist the Chuck Bartowski charm. I didn't even have to break out the Bartowski eye brow dance and air guns." Chuck watched as Sarah laughed. "I knew you were undercover remember? So I tried to break you out of it during our date. I'm glad to see it worked."

"Yeah it did. One thing though. We have to work on your dance moves."

Chuck once again choked on a piece of pizza.

Laughing Sarah said "No, not those 'dance' moves. The actual dancing ones." Feeling flirty, she added "we'll see about those 'dance' moves later."

Chuck couldn't stop coughing. "Stop that! Are you trying to kill me?"

Sarah continued, "Ok. Next question: were you going to let Longshore take you in if the pita girl didn't interrupt?"

"I wasn't sure. I couldn't very well kill him; he was one of the good guys. I guess that was one of the times where luck was on my side. What else?"

"What about your degree?"

"Hmm?"

"You know your electrical engineering degree from Stanford? Why haven't you gone back to finish it?"

"Getting kicked out of Stanford and seeing the disappointment in Ellie's face was really rough. I guess I got knocked down too far and I didn't want to get up to continue the fight. Until..."

"Until what?"

"Until a blonde spy hit on me and made me believe that I could do more with my life."

Chuck watched Sarah's face as a smile formed; he could tell that she liked what she heard. He then watched as she shook her head side to side.

"How in the world did I fall in love with a guy like you?" said Sarah laughing.

Chuck perked up from what he just heard. "What did you say?"

Just like that Sarah brought her hand up to her mouth as if trying to force the words back in. "Nothing" she whispered back.

"Uh-uh, you can't take it back Sarah. I heard you."

Sarah sighed. "Fine. I said I fell in love with you."

"Wow and here I thought we would have to be in front of a bomb or in mortal danger before those words came out of your mouth."

"Funny Chuck."

"Well for the record, I love you too."

"I know. It's the worst kept secret." Chuck watched as Sarah started looking around the room, as if searching for something. "Do you hear that Chuck?"

"Hear what?"

In one swift motion, Sarah pushed Chuck flat onto her bed and simultaneously threw a knife at a wall switch, turning off the lights.

"Sarah, what are y..."

Before Chuck could say anything more, Sarah crashed her lips into his and kissed him as if their lives were about to end. "Sorry Chuck, I can't wait any longer. It seems our song is playing." She smiled and fell back on top of him.

* * *

_A/N extra: I hoped you liked the chapter. Forgive me but I'm going to take a little break from writing in order to recharge the batteries, so this will be where this story and Sarah vs. The Collapse will end for the while. Luckily in both Chuck and Sarah are in a good place; wouldn't want to take a hiatus with them fighting or in the middle of some overwhelming angst. _

_By the way, if you liked this kind of story where Chuck is more than he appears to be then I recommend reading Mdreez's Chuck vs. The Uncovered Life and it's sequel Chuck vs. Operation Delilah. It's a great read. Also Pain Train 12's Chuck vs. The Real Life is in the same category._

_Thanks for reading and reviewing. A little spoiler for Sarah vs. The real Chuck for those who care: upcoming chapters will deal with Chuck's nemesis (or nemeses) and how he deals with them. Also there might be a serious chapter where we see Chuck's full potential on display._

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. I hope you enjoy._

* * *

Sarah strolled into the Buymore and stopped at the entrance as she always did, but this day wasn't like her other days. Not since the revelation about a certain nerd that she fell in loved with. It also helped the day start out better when she found her body and limbs wrapped around the one she loved. She watched his slow breathing, the way his chest would rise and fall, along with her head which was lying on top. Apparently he was able to avoid all the sensors she had placed around the hotel and the booby traps in the room. Not that she minded the intruder in her bed; she would thoroughly enjoy waking up this way for the rest of her life.

She got onto her tippy toes and started looking around for the most important person in her life, the one and only Chuck Bartowski. She smiled because for once she finally felt at ease around him; there were no more games being played, no secret feelings. Everything was now out in the open and she basically got the go ahead for the relationship from General Beckman. Although it did take a little bit of time getting used to the idea of Chuck as a super spy, Sarah couldn't be happier with how it all turned out. She finally spotted him head down at the Nerd Herd counter which caused her some concern.

"Hey there sweetie, what's wrong?" asked Sarah flashing him a big smile.

Lifting his head up, Chuck answered "Hey there Sarah. Nothing's wrong, except that Casey is insisting that he test his skills against mine." He held up a plastic gun with a suction cup dart sticking out of the barrel. "Somehow he thinks that beating me at 'spy vs. spy' equates to something in the real world." Just as he finished the sentence, he cocked his head to the right, narrowly avoiding a dart which ended up stuck on his computer monitor. "See what I mean? All morning I tell you."

Sarah stifled the amazement she felt when Chuck dodged the dart; even she didn't know it was coming. She looked in the direction from which the dart came but didn't see Casey. But concerning matters at hand, Sarah knew that it would be hard on him to accept that nerdy Chuck is actually an elite agent with skills that outclass their own. Actually it was hard on her too finding out her boyfriend was basically the spy you always see in the movies; luckily Chuck never rubbed it in or made himself seem more important than them. "Don't worry; I'm sure he'll get it out of his system soon."

Chuck smiled and shot over his left shoulder, which confused Sarah until she heard a sad grunt come from the DVD section. She laughed as she watched a dejected Casey slink off to the breakroom, probably to regroup. "I know he will but I've had this secret for a while and I'm a little uncomfortable showing my skills, even to you guys."

"Well think of it this way, you're participating a team building exercise with us; the more we know about you, the more easily we'll work as a team. Right?"

"I guess so."

"Good. Now don't forget you said you'll have lunch with me today and we're having dinner with Ellie and Devon tonight."

"Don't worry, how could I forget something like that?"

Sarah gave him a quick peck on the lips before heading towards the exit. "Stay safe Chuck. You wouldn't want to get hit with one of those suction cup thingys and get a hickey. That honor belongs solely to me." She gave him quite the sinister smile.

"I will. But between you and me, I'm much better with knives than with guns." Just as he finished the sentence, he knew he said the wrong thing. Chuck hoped that she didn't hear the last part but as he looked up, he saw that Sarah had stopped dead in her tracks. A few seconds later, she turned around and walked slowly back to the desk.

"What did you say Chuck?"

"Uh, nothing? I said that between you and me, you have a nice set of buns?" Chuck tried to give her a big smile but he could see it wasn't working.

"Try again mister." Sarah's eyes narrowed to slits. "Did you say you were better with knives?"

Chuck was in for it now. He was kicking himself mentally for that slip; as Casey was obsessed with guns, Sarah was with knives. Now with that one little sentence, he ignited the competitive streak within Sarah. "Um, yeah? But not that much better. Certainly not as good as you. Heh heh."

"Sure you aren't Chuck. We'll see won't we?" Sarah let out a little chuckle. "We'll see. Don't be late to the meeting with Beckman."

Chuck dropped his head onto the counter again. Now he had two agents out to get him.

* * *

"So judging from the chipper mood everyone is this morning Chuck's explanation of his secret life turned out well. I see no one has killed anyone else, yet" said Beckman who was facing the seated members of team Bartowski.

"No ma'am. We understand the need for Chuck's secrecy and we'll help maintain both his covers" replied Sarah.

"Agent Bartowski, I'm also guessing you also explained the nature of the intersect to your partners?" asked Beckman.

"Well General, I was working up to that" stuttered Chuck. "Things got a little...hectic after the revelation about my training."

Beckman put her head in her hands while she shook it. "Charles, I thought you would also explain what the intersect is and what it can do to both Walker and Casey. Fine, we'll brief them now."

Casey and Walker glanced at each other, not understanding what else they needed to know about the intersect. They assumed they had the full briefing when they were assigned to Chuck.

"Ok, why don't you two tell me what you know about the intersect" asked Beckman.

Sarah started. "Well ma'am, the intersect is the accumulation of information from both the CIA and NSA. Visual or audio triggers bring up all information pertinent information to what the trigger was."

Beckman nodded. "That's close but not quite there. What Bryce stole from the government installation was not the intersect, despite his claims that it was."

Casey looked confused. "If it wasn't the intersect, then what did he steal?"

"All he stole was the database of government secrets which he encoded into images."

"I don't understand, if it was just a database then how can Chuck do what he does?"

"The intersect itself is not the database but a sort of search engine used to mine the data. As you recall, we tried to create a computer intersect which would use the latest discoveries in artificial intelligence in order to determine connections between the various sets of data. So what Bryce gave to Charles was a database, it was Charles' mind which turned it into the intersect."

Casey sat there with his mouth agape; he knew that Chuck was already special and now he was even more special.

Sarah understood what the General was explaining; Chuck wasn't given the intersect, he made the data implanted into his mind into the intersect. In essence, Chuck created the intersect all on his own. But still she thought it was splitting hairs. "That's all fine General but it doesn't really change anything about the nature of this mission, does it?"

"No, not really but I thought it would be good for both of you to understand the uniqueness of the situation. Before he died within his beloved beta intersect, Graham was determined to create a working computer intersect in order to replace Charles. But despite his claims and Fulcrum's assumption, the beta version never worked properly. It wasn't quite able to make the leaps in logic and deduction like the human mind could. Things like instinct and gut-feelings could never be fully programmed into a machine."

"Why didn't you try making another human intersect?" asked Sarah.

"Graham did; that was his first attempts. But after many failed experiments, they weren't able to create another one. According to the researchers finding someone with a brain that could become the intersect was like 1 in a billion. Therefore he pursued the computer based route."

"So Chuck is the only one able to mine the database and become the intersect?"

"We believe so, for now. But as you know in a world with billions of people, Chuck can't necessarily be the only one with this ability." She turned and looked directly at Chuck. "Charles, would you like to fully reveal the intersect's function to your partners like you should've done already?"

Chuck nervously answered. "Yes ma'am."

Sarah was thrown for a loop; she thought that Chuck had told her the full extent of what the intersect could do. "Excuse me, but there is more that the intersect can do than just retrieve data?"

"Well no not really. But it's the retrieval of data that is different" answered Chuck.

"How so?"

"As you know, flashes can be initiated uncontrollably by both visual and auditory means."

"Yes I know. I've seen you do it many times" replied Sarah.

"But these flashes don't necessarily need to be triggered by outside forces" said Chuck while he squirmed in his seat. He knew the next part wouldn't go over well with his bodyguards. "They can be initiated within."

"What? You can control your flashes?" shouted Sarah.

"Yes. I have full control. I can initiate a flash and start a search to see if there is anything within the database concerning my query. I can also expand the initial flash to include more data. Actually most of my flashes only come up with tidbits of info; it's up to me to push the intersect into revealing more info."

Sarah stared at Chuck and let the revelation sink in. "Does this mean that you know everything about me and Casey? Our past history...everything?" She and Casey both turned to and waited for Chuck's answer.

"No. No I don't."

"And we're supposed to believe that?" asked Casey.

"Like you said Casey, everyone has their secrets. Even you guys. I do have something called self control."

"But why not?" inquired Sarah. "Why not probe for more information about me and Casey? Your father's training should've told you that it would be the most prudent thing to do. You could've learned everything you needed from the beginning."

"Actually no I couldn't. I didn't really gain control of the intersect until a little bit later. But by that time I had already gotten to know both of you, so I didn't think it would be a good idea if I did."

Casey said "You could've gotten everything on us at anytime. What's the difference if we tell you about ourselves versus you just looking it up? You'd still get the same info."

Sarah nodded angrily; she realized that their pivotal night together where they revealed everything about each other was not as important as she thought it was. "Our night together was for nothing; you could've gotten the same information on your own!"

"That's true; I would get the same information and faster as well. It's not the speed at which I obtained the information that was important to me; what was important was the way I obtained. Whether or not you guys allowed me to get to know you that well." He turned to face Sarah. "When we talked in your apartment, I was hearing all the stuff about you for the first time. I promise. I don't only value the info but the fact that you trusted me with it."

Sarah and Casey both sat there stunned at what Chuck had said. He decided not to gain the upper hand on them and trusted them blindly just because he wanted them to willingly tell him about themselves. Unknowingly, they both thought the same thing: how in the world did Chuck ever survive in the world being so trusting, let alone be one of the best spies out there.

Casey shook his head in disbelief. "Well, thanks for not delving into personal information Chuck. I'll see you two later." As soon as he got to the top of the stairs, an evil looking smirk appeared on his face accompanied by a quiet laugh. "Not that much later. Heh heh."

Sarah couldn't help but wonder how a man like Chuck ever fell in love with her. As much as she was closed off about her feelings, Chuck was just as open with his. Where she believed she couldn't trust anyone, he changed her mind and earned her trust. She looked up and saw Chuck nervously waiting for her response to all that was just revealed. Luckily for him, she had prepared herself for anymore surprises ever since Chuck revealed he was trained as a spy. "I'll let you off the hook for now Chuck. But you better not have any more blockbuster secrets that needs revealing."

"No no. That's it." Chuck nervously added. "Umm, are we ok?"

Sarah smiled at how Chuck was still so unsure of himself when it came to her despite his confidence with everything else. "Yes Chuck, we're good." Sarah took his hand and pulled him as they walked up the stairs and out of the Castle. Chuck couldn't see the sinister smile on his girlfriend's face as they walked out.

* * *

_A/N Extra: Sorry for the long long long delay. I've kind of lost my muse and it was a struggle getting this and the next chapter out. The next one drops us further into the Twilight Zone. Thanks for reading!_


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: Next chapter in the story. Enjoy!_

* * *

Sarah walked into the courtyard outside of the Woodcombe/Bartowski residence. She had just finished the team meeting and lunch with Chuck and was now heading over to see Ellie, who asked that she come by early to help out with dinner. Seeing that she and Chuck were now in a very real relationship, Sarah felt it was necessary to become closer to his sister. She knocked on the door and heard the sound of feet running towards here.

"Hey there Sarah!" exclaimed Ellie. "I'm so glad that you came early."

Sarah smiled. She couldn't help but join in the excitement the elder Bartowski displayed whenever she came over. "Hi Ellie. I'm glad you asked me over." She quickly went over and gave her a hug.

"Well come in, sit sit. We have some time before we need to start so I was hoping you and I could take some time to talk." Ellie motioned for Sarah to sit down in the living room. "We never had a chance for some girl time."

"Of course Ellie, I'd love to."

* * *

Sarah and Ellie sat and chatted for half an hour or so and finished a whole bottle of wine before things started turning weird. Sarah started an ill-timed sip of her wine when Ellie decided to ask her question.

"So Sarah, I was wondering this for a while now. Which agency do you belong to?"

Sarah barely stifled the initial shock she felt coursing through her body after hearing her question. Luckily her training kept her calm and collected. She quickly finished her sip and calmly placed her glass on the table. "Well I tried several modeling agencies before but none ever worked out for me. Hence my banishment to the Orange Orange. Speak of which, we have this new flavor Obama Guava that is actually pretty good. You should drop by sometime and try it." Sarah smiled, hoping that Ellie's question was answered.

Ellie laughed. "That's cute Sarah, but you and I both know that's not what I was asking." She took another sip of her wine. "I was asking what government agency you work for. Is it FBI, DEA, NSA, or CIA? I don't see you as DEA or FBI; so it's either NSA or CIA."

Once again Sarah had to control her reactions in order to prevent Ellie from reading her. She couldn't figure out how Ellie knew that she worked for the government but now wasn't the moment to work things out. Sarah needed to get Ellie off the trail. "I don't...I don't know what you're talking about Ellie? Government agency? I work at the Orange Orange remember?"

"Stubborn till the end I see" Ellie chuckled. "It's ok, I'll start then. I know that you and Casey aren't who you say you are. You don't work at a yogurt shop and Casey most certainly doesn't sell Beastmasters for a living. I know that you and Chuck leave and come back home at the weirdest times of the night. I also know that you both sport bruises and cuts after some of these outings. Although you guys seemingly have been going out for a year now, I can count on two fingers the amount of times you actually stayed over." Ellie leaned in closer to Sarah. "I do know that you are really good at what you do. For example, just a moment ago you suppressed the feeling of shock and confusion that I know must've went through your body when I asked you what agency you worked for. But without missing a beat you came out with a solution to problem and also started to deflect attention away from yourself. If it were anybody else, I'm sure you would've fooled them. You certainly have a quick mind and steady nerves; but nothing escapes me."

Sarah continued to stare at Ellie; truthfully she was at a loss of what to do. "I don't....know what to say. I'm confused to what you think I am."

Ellie decided to take a different approach and lay everything out on the table. "So let me tell you something that I'm sure you probably heard already. Chuck and I didn't have a normal childhood. Our mother was a neurosurgeon and our father worked in the same field as you; he was a secret agent. My godmother introduced them and they fell in love. Our parents...left...and he and I were left to fend for ourselves. Blah blah blah. Nod if you heard this before."

Sarah thought for a good few seconds but finally conceded by slowly moved her head up and down. At this point it seemed that Ellie somehow knew a lot more than she figured.

"I see, so Chuck did beat me to it. I assume he told you about the special training he received from our dad?"

Sarah nodded again.

"Did he tell you that he took after our dad while I was more like our mother?"

The shocked blonde woman nodded again.

"Essentially that was true, but our dad wasn't just going to leave his daughter defenseless."

Sarah finally spoke, "Did he train you too?"

"Yes but not to the extent that Chuck was probably trained. Although I was bugging him to train me as well, Dad told me that this type of training was only effective with Chuck since he had the gift of a photographic memory. That enabled him to quickly take in the lessons and apply it."

Sarah nodded and knew that Chuck's gift extended beyond just having a photographic memory but she didn't wish to delve into the intricacies of the human intersect right now.

"Initially I was mad that Chuck was special and I wasn't but my father insisted that I was gifted in my own right. He told me that I was the most observant person he ever knew, even beyond those employed in the CIA as profilers. I didn't think of it as anything abnormal initially; I was always able to catch the slightest movements of the tiniest objects, I knew if something was moved out of place, I could perceive tiny changes in a person's demeanor."

"So what did he teach you?"

"He taught me how to quickly observe, analyze, and assess a situation or person and with my natural born skill, it would only enhance it. That way I could easily avoid bad situations and tell quickly if a person was honest or not. By the end of it he told me that I probably was better than Chuck in that respect, reading people. Truthfully Dad's training served me well in the medical field; being able to observe slight changes in a person's body language is not that far off from diagnosing an injury or disease."

The honesty part of Ellie's last statement got to Sarah. She knew that it meant that Ellie had known all along that she was being lied to. Sarah's mood darkened a bit at the realization.

"For example just a moment ago I could see tiny, almost imperceptible beads of sweat forming on your forehead and around your lips, your face paled slightly, and I saw that your breathing became a bit more strained. Vessels in your neck and on your forehead momentarily bulged. You also changed the way you sat: you crossed your legs in front of you, almost as if you were creating a barrier between you and me. Most notably I saw a momentary flash in your eyes when I asked you what agency you belonged to." Ellie took a sip of her wine. "Don't worry Sarah. Like I said before, you're an extremely gifted agent; there aren't many people who could see what I saw."

Sarah started to tear up. "I'm so sorry for lying to you Ellie for this last year. I had to in order to keep and Devon from any danger. You must think badly of me."

Ellie moved over next to Sarah and put her arm around her. "There's no need to apologize Sarah. I didn't do this because I was angry or anything. I just wanted you to be able to relax around me. Every time you're here I see you enjoying yourself, only to pull back when you started enjoying too much. Am I right?"

"Yeah, it's so easy to lose myself whenever I'm around you guys which isn't good when you're on duty."

"So now that you're opening up, which is it?"

"CIA."

"I see. And Casey?"

"NSA."

"Chuck?"

"He's a temporary CIA agent."

"Cool. At least my baby brother has gotten his life in gear."

"You're not the least bit curious over this whole thing? Don't you want to know what I'm doing here or why Chuck has decided to become CIA?"

"Not really. You forget you're talking to the daughter of a former CIA agent. I know that there are some things that you guys just can't talk about. As for Chuck, I'm happy that he has you and has finally decided to move on with his life. It's been a waste of his skills just sitting behind the Nerd Herd desk."

"You make it seem like you know what he can do. Chuck was under the assumption that you didn't know his full capabilities since your father told you not to pry into it."

"That's true, I don't know everything. But just cause my dad said not to doesn't mean I didn't look into it. I have my ways to finding out stuff and I know that Chuck is scary good at this agent stuff."

"How?"

"I've mostly learned it from little things my dad and he said. But there was one time when Dad came home after training with Chuck and had this total look of pride and amazement on his face. When Mom asked him what was wrong, all he could say was that Chuck surpassed him in all the tests. I can only assume that meant that Chuck was better than him and that was when he was 15."

This made Sarah even more curious to know how good Chuck was. To excel above a real Razor's Edge member meant that Chuck was 'scary good' as Ellie had said. "I see. How bout Devon?"

"Devon? The Blonde Devil of Bangladesh, the..."

Sarah interrupted her. "Uh, Ellie? Chuck kind of already used that one on me."

"Really? Darn it. What did he call me?"

"The Ark angel of Amsterdam, the Shining Sword of Shanghai,..."

"Ark angel? Cool. I like it so far."

"...The Grey Ghost of Glasgow."

Ellie's face instantly turned red. "Grey Ghost? Grey Ghost? What does he mean? I have no gray hair." She pulled her hair around to show Sarah. "See? No grays. I'm so going to kick his ass when he comes home."

Sarah gulped. She forgot how sensitive the elder Bartowski was when it came to her age. She remembered that during one birthday celebration Chuck had put the Ellie's actual age in candles on her cake. The next thing he knew Ellie had speared him and knocked him onto the floor. "I totally agree with you Ellie. Chuck was so out of line." With that Sarah had just thrown Chuck under the bus.

"Good, I'm glad you agree with me."

"So you knew early on I was lying to you but you didn't do anything about it?"

"Nope, I knew you were lying about what you were doing but not about what you were feeling."

"Huh?"

"Please Sarah, I could tell from early on that you were in love with Chuck. It's true what they say; the eyes are windows to the soul. And your eyes told me that you fell hard for my brother."

"Well I wouldn't say hard..."

Ellie stared at Sarah.

"Ok, I fell hard for your brother."

"See how easy things become when your honest?"

"It's not that I didn't want to. It's just the nature of my job."

"I know and that's why I did this today. You don't need to hide from us anymore. Feel free to be yourself."

"Be myself?" Those two words scared Sarah a little bit. She didn't know how to be herself or if there was anybody other than Sarah Walker left. But as she looked at the smiling face of Chuck's sister, she knew she came to the right place to find herself. "I'll try."

"Great. It would be great to have another female voice; way too much testosterone in the home. I want you to do one thing for me though."

"What's that?"

"Let yourself go a little bit when your here. You can relax while you're with us and not worry about covers. Don't worry about the bugs you and Casey planted; Chuck has long since taken care of them."

"I will. There's one thing I'd like to ask you as well. It's more of a favor. It involves surprising Chuck."

Ellie smiled. "There's not even a need to ask; over course I'll help."

* * *

_A/N extra: What can I say? Chuck shouldn't be the only special one. Next chapters will have a different feel to them; they'll be more like snippets into Chuck's ever complicated life. Hopefully I don't lose my muse._


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: So here's the next part of the story; it only took 7 months for me to update it. I have the next two chapters already planned out in my head and hopefully the will to type it out remains. I hope you enoy._

* * *

_

06:55pm John Casey

Casey sat in silence, completely hidden from view by the vegetation that surrounded him. He had been sitting silently there for two hours now; a small price to pay for the enjoyment he was about to receive. Pulling out a candy bar from his tactical suit's pocket, Casey did something foreign to him: he let himself smile. He knew he was now in his element: hunting and stalking his target.

Casey reminisced back to his days in the US Marine corps, specifically to a particularly fond mission he was assigned. He had been ordered to eliminate a prominent warlord who was hiding himself in the Afghani mountains. Previous attempts by the US to take care of him were unsuccessful due to the fact that he rarely left the confines of the mountain caves and when he did leave, it was for very brief moments.

It was one of those moments that Casey had waited three days for. Lying prone in some bushes far across from a cave opening, he waited patiently for his target to leave the safety of his cave. Lesser men would've given up after twelve hours, a day at most. But Casey knew the meaning of patience; nothing came easy but when it did, the payoff was all the more sweet.

As he stared at the opening on that third day, a smile had appeared on his face as he saw his target stroll leisurely out of his cave to take in the freshness of the mountain air. Casey noted that it would be the last thing on his mind as he squeezed the trigger of his rifle and the shot hit his target squarely in the forehead.

Of course Casey received commendations for his work and patience in taking out the high profile target but the thing that satisfied him the most was the fact that he did something better than someone else. He had stayed out there longer and was stronger willed than other agents.

But switching back to the present, Casey knew that his new target would not be that easy. No, this target would be smarter and better trained that even he was. Bagging this target would be as if a deer had suddenly attacked a lion; a hunter being hunted. But unlike his Afghanistan mission, this mission wasn't for the security of a nation or for the pride of its people; this mission was for his own pride. The pride in knowing that he took down one of the best.

Casey allowed himself to smile just a bit at that thought. Swatting a mosquito away from his neck he savored the thought of being able to rub this in Chuck's face, letting him know who was still top dog in this kennel. Casey yawned a bit and felt his eyes grow heavy; he had been there for a long time waiting for Chuck to come home. The last thing he remembered was the ground coming up to meet his face as he fell head first into the dirt.

_

* * *

_

06:55pm Sarah Walker

Sarah Walker often had to deal with opponents much larger than she was, to that end she was skilled in using their power against them and using numbers to subdue a physically superior opponent. It also helped that her size and stature often gave her opponents the wrong impression of what he was truly capable of. But this time the prey she was after was a different type of animal: better trained, heightened senses, and superior abilities. But the one thing she did have was the element of surprise and numbers, specifically two to one.

So here she was, slouched behind a bedroom door waiting for her target to arrive. Her partner in crime was in the kitchen in the same position. She knew that her prey would expect something from her, but not necessarily from her cohort. This would be his mistake, after taking her out he would get complacent and allow her partner to take him out. A small price to pay for her in order to outsmart one of the nation's best.

Sarah remembered when she had teamed up with Karina on a mission before this one. The only thing left to do was to leave the scene but a six and a half foot monster stood in their way. So what did she and Karina do? Team up of course and take down the physically superior man and make him eat the heel of their pretty red stilettos. His only error was believing that he could take down two well trained agents.

She smiled at the thought of getting the better of Chuck. Although it didn't bug her as much as it did Casey that he was an elite agent, part of her still felt a bit annoyed at the thought of it. Especially since she took great pride in knowing that she was his protector; but now it seems that she was the one being protected.

She suddenly readied herself as she heard the noise of footsteps upon gravel outside the Morgan door. Sarah waited patiently for her prey to come in before she implemented her attack. A dark silhouette came in the window and before it could reach the edge of the bed, Sarah fired a tranq dart into it's neck. She swatted at a mosquito biting her neck before she let out a little chuckle as she walked over to the figure now lying face down on the bed.

The last thing Sarah remembered before her eyes closed was seeing Casey's sleeping face on Chuck's bed and a pair of warm arms catching her as she fell.

_

* * *

_

06:55pm Chuck Bartowski

Chuck parked his nerd herder across the street from his sister's place. Although he had his hands full all day with customer questions and the incessant attacks from Casey, which he successfully fended off each time, he felt quite content. The will they/won't they game that he and Sarah had been playing for the past year was now solved and it greatly eased the tension between them, which Diane also finally admitted that it annoyed her to no end. Casey seemed happier now that he didn't need to "babysit the nerd" anymore.

Chuck smiled as he walked across the street and headed to the rear of the apartment complex instead of to the courtyard. With hardly any effort at all, he scaled the fence and jumped onto the roof without any noise heard. He slowly walked over to the edge of the roof overlooking the courtyard where he, his sister, and Devon held many epic parties. Luckily it was a moonless night and so his shape was invisible against the dark sky.

Slowly and carefully scanning the area, he saw a hint of movement of a shadow illuminated by a passing car move from within the bushes. Pulling out a CO2 powered dart gun, Chuck fired a tranq into said bush. Waiting a few seconds, Chuck heard the inevitable thud of a body dropping to the ground. Quickly jumping down he found what he knew what there, the sleeping body of Casey.

Chuck pulled out his cell phone and placed a call to his girlfriend. "Hey Sarah, just wanted to let you know that I'll be a few minutes late. I hope you don't mind."

....

"I see, you and Ellie have been drinking eh?"

....

"Yeah, you're slurring a bit there. How much did you two have?"

....

"A whole bottle and Ellie's already gone?"

....

"Snoring you say?"

....

"Well ok, leave some for me. I'll see you soon."

Chuck stood in the darkness hovering over Casey while he slept as he formulated his next move. He knew something was up and Sarah definitely had a surprise planned for him. Looking down, he decided that he would play the numbers game and recruit said sleepyhead into his plan. Dragging the limp body of his partner to the Morgan door, Chuck pulled out the antidote to the tranq he administered to Casey and pricked him with it. Knowing that he would probably still be groggy and disoriented for the first few minutes upon waking, Chuck used it to his advantage to get Casey to do what he needed him to.

Chuck pulled Casey up by his collar and whispered to him "Major Casey. Insurgents at the gate. Take them out."

Casey's eyes were drifting a bit until he heard the word insurgents. One of the things he hated the most was insurgents. "Yes sir. I'll take care of those lowlifes."

"Good soldier. Give me one minute and then commence attack."

"Affirmative."

Chuck quickly rounded the corner to the back of his sister's apartment. Looking through the sliding glass door he could see said sister crouched behind the couch probably waiting for him to leave his room. He smiled at the plan that his girlfriend and sister concocted and had to admit that it could've worked if Sarah didn't slip up a bit earlier. Quietly jimmying the lock, Chuck snuck in and fired a single dart into the rump of his hiding sister. He smiled as she turned around and saw him waving goodnight as the room got darker until it was completely black.

_I'm going to pay for that one_, thought Chuck.

Listening at his door, he hears Casey coming in through the window and the sound of a puff of air and then a collapse. Opening the door, Chuck watched as his proud girlfriend Sarah walked to her prey. Giving her a moment to savor in her 'apparent' victory, he fired one of his own darts into her neck. Running quickly to her side before she hit the ground, he smiled and shook his head.

_Yup, this isn't going to end well for me_, thought Chuck as he prepared to clean up his mess.

_

* * *

_

The next day

Chuck strolled into the Orange Orange as he usually did for lunch with Sarah. But this time he knew that it wasn't going to be any ordinary lunch. He tried to look for an apology Hallmark card for what had happened but he couldn't find one that properly expressed his sadness for tranqing his girlfriend.

"Hey there beautiful, how's work?" said Chuck with his trademark smile.

Unfortunately his blond girlfriend did not provide him with an equally bright smile. Barely giving him a glance, Sarah went about cleaning the countertops.

"What's wrong babe?" asked Chuck. "You left early this morning; I was hoping to catch a ride."

Sarah finally looked up. "Seriously? You seriously don't know what's wrong?"

Chuck shook his head, trying to feign ignorance.

"You TRANQ'D me Chuck! What kind of boyfriend tranqs his girlfriend?"

"Umm, one that knew his girlfriend was trying to do the same?" Chuck said with a grin.

Truthfully Sarah wasn't mad; she knew well enough that it was all in fun. Well as fun as one can have with guns and ambushes. But one thing did annoy her. "You could've at least given me the antidote instead of letting me sleep till this morning."

"That's true but there's this new game that just came out and I kind of wanted to play it uninterrupted..." said Chuck, as he let the last few words trail off quietly.

"So you wanted to play your game instead of playing with me? And I emphasize 'playing with me'."

"I didn't say that..." Chuck started to squirm. "I just saw that you were having such a peaceful rest that I didn't want to wake you."

Crossing her arms in front of her, Sarah accused "Who knows what you were doing with me while I was incapacitated."

"Sarah, you know I wouldn't do anything to you" quickly replied Chuck.

"For all I know, you could've been taking compromising pictures of me."

"Of course I wouldn't do that." Chuck whispered with a smile, "Not many anyways."

"Chuck!"

"I'm joking, I'm joking. There were no cameras involved."

Sarah smiled at Chuck; it was quite refreshing to have this sort of verbal exchange with him. She had been so serious about her work for quite a long time that it was nice to have someone in her life who could break down her barriers so easily. What continued to amaze her is how Chuck is an agent like her, but unlike her he continued to have such a great view on life. For all that has happened in his life, no one would blame him if he developed a cynical take on everything around him. Although he was depressed for a while (who wouldn't be if your best friend stole your girlfriend and kicked you out of college) it didn't seem to faze his desire to see the good in people. "Too bad Chuck. With your camera skills and my flexibility, it could've been quite interesting" smiled Sarah sinisterly.

"Wha..?" spat out Chuck as he turned bright red.

Laughing, Sarah asked "So are you going to tell me how you caught on to everyone?"

Chuck slowly shook the visions that were popping in his mind (reluctantly of course) and answered, "well Casey was easy; when hasn't he been after me?"

"Ok that's true."

"As for you, I knew something was up when I talked to you on your cell before I came over."

"Really? What did I say?"

"You told me that you and Ellie had one bottle of wine and that she was already knocked out asleep. I know Ellie and that it'll take more than one bottle to knock her out. Sheesh, even Casey would have a hard time drinking her under the table."

Sarah shook her head, "so you sent Casey in as a decoy and came in through the back door."

"Yup, pretty simple eh? One thing I learned from my father was when you're an agent and you're working alone, deception and misdirection become your best friends." Chuck started fidgeting with his tie, "so am I forgiven?"

"Of course Chuck" smiled Sarah.

"Well I better get going before things get too out of hand at the Buymore."

"Hold up there buddy, did you have anything to eat?"

"Uh no, we had a sudden rush of customers this morning. Didn't have time."

Sarah quickly turned around and oozed out a cup of vanilla frozen yogurt. "I'm sorry it's not a sandwich but I hope it can tie your over."

Raising the cup in salutation, "no it's great. Thanks Sarah. I'll see you later."

"Bye Chuck" replied Sarah as she watched him walk out the store. To her surprise Jeff had run up to him in quite a panic; probably another one of Lester's schemes gone wrong.

A sinister smile grew on her face as she watched her boyfriend slowly stir the yogurt she gave him. A bigger smile replaced that one as she watched him bring the spoon up to his mouth. But just as quickly, the smile was replaced by shock as Chuck quickly shoved said spoon into Jeff's mouth and they both watched the frizzy haired man's eyes roll up into his head as he fell backwards like a plank.

Sarah couldn't believe that he had caught onto that one as well and she gave a little apologetic wave as he turned and mouthed 'nice try' through the window. With her eyes still on him, she watched as Chuck placed Jeff onto one of the outside patio chairs and started his triumphant walk back to the store.

Just as he left her field of view, he came running back the other direction with a look of fear on his face. Assuming the worse, Sarah started to reach for her gun until she saw an extremely angry older Bartowski storm from the opposite direction.

"CHARLES IRVING BARTOWSKI! GET OVER HERE NOW!" screamed Ellie.

Sarah laughed and suddenly the loss to Chuck didn't have the same sting to it as before.


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: Thanks again to all the reviewers who were kind enough to leave a note. Just a lil aside; I started this AU story over a year ago when we were still enjoying season 2 of Chuck. Now we have a full spy-capable Chuck...in a relationship with Sarah...who admitted that she loved him from the start. His father was a top notch spy for over 20 years..underwent missions the government couldn't take on their own...passes down his legacy to his son. Not as AU as I thought, but then I remembered I made Beckman his godmother and then the AU really sticks out. Enjoy!_

* * *

Sarah sighed. The so-called easy in-n-out rescue mission they were tasked with turned out to be a much longer and much more annoying affair.

It all started when they were contacted by the British intelligence unit MI-6 regarding an agent of theirs that was being held within one of Fulcrum's strongholds in Barstow. All they needed to do was to storm the base, rescue the agent, and blow everything up. That was the simple part; now according to that agent, Cole Barker, they needed to raid additional Fulcrum bases located in Southern California in order to recover encrypted discs containing some of MI-6's more sensitive data.

Sarah wouldn't be half as annoyed with the mission if it wasn't for the agent himself. Cole Barker fancied himself as the second coming of James Bond: the kind of guy every man wants to be and every woman wants to be with. The constant overt flirting from the brit started to wear on her and Chuck. Unfortunately this was due to the General advising that they keep him from knowing anything other than what was required for the mission until they could determine his loyalty, including her relationship with Chuck and the intersect. So for now, she and Chuck had to pretend they were partners and nothing more; which was hard on everyone, especially Chuck. Every once and a while she'd see a fire burn in Chuck's eyes, clearly expressing his desire to throw one of his knives into the back of Cole's skull.

Truthfully, she'd wish he did so that she could finally be done with all the flirting (one sided of course). Like the other morning when she came into the castle where they were temporarily housing their British counterpart, Cole just 'happened' to be coming out of the shower and stood there in his towel as he said hello to her. If not for the extreme patience she learned from the agency, she would've shot Cole in such a place as to help Britain with it's population control. She knew she could justify it as something done for the greater good of all women everywhere and she was sure that the General would've backed her up. Hell she could've gotten Casey to do it no questions asked but he was enjoying the fact that it was bothering Chuck so much. So for now she had to just grin and bear it.

Things went even more south a few days later before another mission when a surprise guest from their past decided to show up and help out with the takedown of one of the Fulcrum bases. Sarah swore she could hear Chuck's mind chamber a bullet into his gun as Bryce Larkin strolled down the stairs into the castle. If one wasn't bad enough, Sarah now had to contend with two agents who thought they were God's gifts to womankind and somehow along the way it was also decided that they would see who was the better man by competing for her affections.

On the upside of things (if there was an upside), Chuck did his best to deflect both her suitors and helped give her some breathing room. Sometimes it would consist of him being slightly clumsy and spilling some super-hot coffee (she saw him nuking it extra long in the microwave) on their laps or accidentally bumping into them and making them fall. But the most amusing one was when they were all in the Castle one afternoon.

On that day, Casey and Chuck were on the far end of the conference table away from her. Casey was cleaning his guns (of course) and Chuck was fiddling with his tranquilizer gun (even if he was a super-spy, he confessed to still seeking out non-lethal solutions first). Barker decided to work out shirtless in full view of everyone in the room while Bryce sat on the table in front of her while he tried to "work his magic."

Sarah could see the fire burning in Chuck's eyes as both these men tried their hardest to win her over. Sarah figured that he had seen enough and what happened next surprised her. She watched as Chuck nudged Casey in the elbow in order to get his attention. Once he did, he raised his tranq gun and aimed it towards the far wall. Casey and Sarah both looked a bit confused of what he was trying to do. That was until they saw him pull the trigger and watched as the dart bounce off three walls and finally lodge itself into Bryce's neck. The dark haired man quickly fell like a sack of potatoes onto the table. Sarah barely could contain her laugh when she heard her ex-partner snoring on the table.

Sarah looked over and saw a look of total amusement on Casey's face that she had never seen before. That was until Chuck handed him the tranq gun and nodded in the direction of the British secret agent. A sinister smile grew on his face as he took his time to aim the gun at a distant wall. Once he believed he had the right trajectory, Casey looked over to Chuck for final approval. Chuck looked to where he was aiming and then to where Barker was standing and gave him a single nod. Pulling the trigger, they watched as the dart flew through the air and bounced similar to Chuck's, finally hitting it's intended target in the buttock. The tranquilizer quickly took effect and the three agents watched as the brit fell over like a log. Casey looked over to Chuck and they gave each other an approving nod before going back to what they were doing. Chuck gave her a wink and went back to his fiddling with the gun.

Sarah knew that if Chuck had joined in the competition, there would be no doubt to who would be the victor. It was then that she decided that she would hold a little competition (in her mind of course) and see in how many ways Chuck would prevail over these two gigolos.

* * *

_A/N extra: So the next chapter will be the last in the story and the last I write. I had fun writing them and reading the great reviews but I really can't get back into the swing of it._


	11. Chapter 11

_A/N: If anyone's still keeping up with this story, you're probably thinking that this is gonna be a letter from the author stating how busy things have become and that they'll get back to the story as soon as they can and to keep looking for it. Nope! This is the real thing; an actual update. Probably not the cleanest thing I wrote but I want to complete this story. For those who haven't read this story, just take note that I started this way waaay before, like when season 2 had just gotten finished. So a lot of stuff has happened since then and this is completely not coinciding with the show._

_By the way, still don't own Chuck._

* * *

Round 1:

Sarah knew that there was a definite difference between acting charming and being charming. These two yahoos, Bryce and Cole, were the perfect example of people who were acting. There was no doubt that these two could charm any woman they wanted and get them to do whatever they wanted. But ask any of those women who had fallen for them, the first thing they would say is that it seemed good on the outside but it had felt so shallow. Examples like puddles and thimbles of water seemed to come up often when describing their personalities.

Now Chuck on the other hand did not need to act, he was charming by nature. What made him even more dangerous to womankind was his naivety; he didn't even know how charming he was and that fact made him all the more irresistible to the opposite sex.

Sarah moved up to the monitors showing the interior of the Buymore. With a smile on her face, she watched a cute scene. Apparently a little girl had gotten separated from her mother and Chuck was helping her. She watched he held the little girl's hand as they walked around the store. Sarah could see that Chuck was doing his best to soothe the little girl because every once and a while she smile and laugh a bit.

This did not go unnoticed by the multitude of women who decided to do some electronics shopping that afternoon. Sarah watched as each woman's head turned towards her Chuck and how each one had a smile and quite the predatory smile on them. She continued to watch her boyfriend help the little girl until she realized that all those women (more that half of them brunettes) were after him. Jealousy finally skyrocketing, Sarah quickly rose from her seat in front of the monitors and rushed but the castle's stairs.

If anyone was watching the castle's monitors at that point would've have undoubtedly seen a blonde streak rush up to Chuck and engaged him in a kiss which told all women in the store that day who he belonged to.

* * *

Round 2:

Sarah looked at her two so called "protectors" and shook her head. The mission had started off as planned but quickly went downhill after one of the two fools tripped the alarm and alerted the whole Fulcrum base. So here they were hunkered down behind some metal shipping containers while the entirety of Fulcrum's forces took aim at them.

"Fine mess we're in now, aren't we" fumed Sarah.

Bryce popped off a few shots with his assault rifle before countering, "It's not my fault that some gorilla couldn't avoid a simple floor laser sensor."

"Can you get off it already?" shouted Cole. "I wouldn't have tripped it if some metro sexual pretty boy didn't push me into the room."

"Shut it, both of you" screamed Sarah. "I hear a lot of talking but nothing about how we're going to get ourselves out of this mes..."

Before Sarah could finish her sentence, all three spies ducked for cover as they heard the sound of thousands of bullets bouncing off the side of their metal barrier. Waiting for a single moment within the barrage of bullets, the three spies carefully looked over their safe haven at the monstrosity that lay before them.

"Uh, do you guys see what I see?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah you mean the sleek black Escalade parked in front of us?" replied Bryce.

"No mate, I think she means the minigun attached to the roof of that Escalade" countered Cole.

"Yeah I saw that. I was hoping that by not mentioning it, it might go away."

They all quickly ducked as the minigun churned out more fire directly aimed at their position. "Obviously no such luck mate. This tin can we're behind ain't gonna be around for too much longer."

"Hey guys, quite a party you guys are having."

All three spies quickly turned their heads to the newcomer and two of them had incredulous looks on their faces. As for Sarah, she knew he would be coming. "Hey Chuck" said Sarah with a smile.

"CHUCK! What the hell are you doing here! You do know we're under fire, right!" screamed Bryce.

"Uh yeah Bryce, that's why I'm hiding here with you guys."

"I thought we told you to stay in the car."

"It's not always safe in the car."

They were interrupted with the sounds of thousands of bullets ricocheting off their hiding place. Chuck quickly looked over the metal container to survey what they were up against. "Is that what I think it is?"

Sarah answered "Yup, a shiny black Escalade. With a minigun attached"

"I didn't even know that was an option."

"Oh it is. It's listed after the rear camera and the side airbags. Too bad it only comes in one color."

"Personally I would've liked a laser guided rocket launcher. Miniguns are so yesterday."

Bryce noticed the easy going talk between the two and quickly interrupted. "Excuse me, I didn't want to interrupt the flirting but do the words 'under fire' mean anything?"

Chuck smiled and remarked "I'll take care of it" while he took out his Walter PPK. He looked up to the two other men and noticed their choice of weapons, assault rifles compared to his dinky pistol. It wasn't his fault that the Fulcrum guard he took out had a thing for James Bond.

Coles quickly saw Chuck's glance at their armament. "Don't worry Chuck, Bryce and I will take care of it. You can't bring a knife to a gun fight." Obviously referring to his diminutive weapon.

With a chuckle, Bryce added "you know what they say, bigger is better" and gave Sarah a quick wink.

Sarah rolled her eyes as she watched the two men prepare to launch their counterattack. As they jumped out and unleashed their barrage back towards their Fulcrum attackers, she and Chuck shared a look as they waited for the inevitable to happen and it seemed that they didn't have that long to wait.

"Ok, so that didn't work" announced Bryce who quickly hid back behind the container holding an empty rifle.

It didn't take long for his cohort to join him. "Damn wankers."

Chuck smiled. "I guess it's my turn. Showtime."

The three other spies watched curiously as Chuck peeked around the corner once and then on the second time, fired a single shot towards the Escalade.

"That's it? One shot from your dart gun?" asked Bryce. "Did you actually hit anything?"

"Of course I did" fired back Chuck. "I suggest you brace yourself against the wall of the container." Chuck once again peered out from their hiding spot and fired a single shot. This time Bryce didn't need to ask if he hit anything because each one of them heard and felt the heat of the blast coming from the other side of the container.

"What the...?" asked Cole as he struggled to figure out what just happened.

"Like I said, I took care of it. I shot a hole in the gas tank of the SUV and my second shot ignited it" smiled Chuck. "Frankly I didn't think it was going to be that big of an explosion. I thought that only happened in the movies." Chuck stood up and cleaned himself off. "You know what they say boys: it isn't the size of the gun, it's how you use it." With that, Chuck left them behind the container, speechless, while he scouted out the damage.

Feeling like they needed to be kicked a little bit more, Sarah looked over in Chuck's direction and added "although it doesn't hurt to have a big gun and know how to use it." With that she walked off to join Chuck.

"Did she just say...about Chuck?" asked Bryce.

"Frankly, I'd rather not think too deeply into it" replied Cole. "Let's go help them clean up."

* * *

Round 3:

Bryce and Cole both rushed out the elevator and cased out the scene; they were breaking into a previously unknown Fulcrum headquarters located in the center of Los Angeles. Disguised as a normal, fully functioning office building, this was actually one of the hubs of information for the whole Fulcrum network within the west coast. But of course this standard operation had to turn into a macho contest between the two agents. Chuck, on the other hand, either didn't notice the competition or didn't care because he happily followed the group as they took out enemy agents one by one.

"That's two for me" Cole proudly announced.

"That's nice that you finally caught up to me" replied Bryce.

"Would you guys focus for a second? There's more than enough baddies in here for the both of you" admonished Sarah. She motioned for everyone to stop and quiet down as she put her ear to the wall.

The rest of the team quickly understood from the look on her face that the room was full of enemies. Cole and Bryce walked up to the either side of the door and after counting to three, both men rushed into the room. Sarah rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall waiting while the two man-childs went to play. She noticed Chuck moving on to another room down the hall but unlike missions before, she felt no need to worry about his well being and let him go on his own.

Sarah noticed that the sounds of fighting had died down and calmly walked into the room and took note of the thirteen men lying in various states of consciousness.

"That's seven for me" announced the MI6 agent.

"What are you talking bout seven?" the CIA agent asked back. "I could've sworn I had to help you out with that one. Half point for you my friend."

"Fine, six and half for both of us."

Bryce looked over to Sarah and noticed the missing person. "Where's Chuck?"

Sarah shrugged and looked out into the hall.

"Sarah! Why didn't you keep an eye on him?"

"Uh, cause he's an full agent now. He can take care of himself" answered back Sarah as she watched Bryce and Cole rush out looking for the missing member.

Both men stood outside the door and looked out in both directions down the halls. They were clueless to his location until they heard the slamming of a door. As Sarah joined them out in the hall, they all rushed to the door from where the sound was heard. Bryce slowly pushed the door open and the three of them walked into the room. Both men expected to find Chuck in some peril but instead found him happily typing away on one of Fulcrum's workstations. Surrounding him and strewn out across the room were various baddies. Bryce and Cole couldn't help but have their jaws hit the floor. Sarah walked up to Chuck and looked over his shoulder as he searched the Fulcrum database.

"Oh hey guys" greeted Chuck.

"Chuck...did you do all this?" asked Bryce incredulously.

"Huh? Did what?"

"The...the..." stuttered the dark haired agent.

"I think he means the men" said Cole as he completed Bryce's thought. "Did you take out these eleven men on your own?"

"Eleven?" asked Chuck. He looked around the room. "No."

Bryce let out a sigh.

"There's four more in the locker over there."

Sarah smiled as she watched the shock wash over the faces of the two other agents.

"I think that's it" announced Chuck. "I downloaded the entirety of their database. Should keep General Beckman and the people in analysis happy for a while."

* * *

Final Round:

Bryce stared at the scene before him, fear creeping throughout his whole body. CIA training had taught them that fear was inevitable; there was no avoiding it and those who says they don't have any were idiots waiting to die. The best recourse was to use that fear, that fight or flight response to turn things into their advantage; by either making a strategic retreat or by taking the challenge on.

Unfortunately he knew that this time it wouldn't work. The fear he felt now was a different sort of fear, the type that doesn't feed into your fight or flight response. No, this fear rendered you useless. This is the fear you feel when you know there's no other options available; you can't fight and you can't run. This fear you only feel when you are the prey facing a top predator. There is no running away, there is no fighting back; just resignment to your fate.

As Bryce looked up, he saw the instigator of this feeling. Silhouetted against the moonlight that poured in through the windows was his friend, Chuck barely straining as he held their captor by the neck several inches off the ground.

Earlier:

Bryce opened his eyes and found himself strapped to a metal chair. As he looked around, he found Sarah and Cole in a similar restrained state. From what he could see they were in an empty warehouse. As he struggled against his restraints, he thought back to what happened, but the last thing he remembered was walking out of the secret exit to the castle and after that, darkness.

He looked over to his comrades and whispered to them to wake up. "Cole, Sarah. Snap out of it already. We're in trouble here." As Sarah slowly shook away the cobwebs, Bryce looked over to see Cole was knocked out for the count. Turning towards the door, he watched his captor walk in. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"Seriously Mr. Larkin? Starting off our conversation with such boring and standard questions?"

Bryce just shrugged his shoulders.

"Fine then. My name is Daniel Shaw."

"Sorry never heard of you, Shaw" spat out Bryce. "And I know almost everyone in Fulcrum."

"Fulcrum? Tsk tsk. I'm not associated with that small time op. I'm with the Ring."

"The Ring? Never heard of them."

"I don't think you would Mr. Larkin. You may not know us, but we control Fulcrum."

Surprise instantly registered onto Bryce's face. He thought that Fulcrum was all there is and that by taking them down he could ensure the safety of the United States.

"What's wrong? Don't tell me you thought Fulcrum was the end all. Amateurs like them?"

Bryce asked "so what do you want from us? If you're that big and bad of an organization, then what do you want from us?"

Shaw smiled "nothing at all. Actually you're helping me right now."

Bryce looked over to Sarah and Cole with a confused look. "How are we helping you?"

"I thought it was clear; you're the bait. The fish we're trying to catch is your partner, Charles Carmichael." Shaw quickly looked over to Sarah, who had laughed. "Something funny Miss Walker?"

"Yes, the fact that you actually called out Chuck. You have no idea what you just done." Despite their predicament, Sarah smiled at the fact that Chuck would be coming to her rescue.

Shaw replied "I know exactly what I've done. We've been watching the situation with your tea and Fulcrum for a while now. We know that no matter how big the attacking force is or how devious the plan, your team always comes out smelling like roses. We believe he has something to do with it." With that, he walked over the door and let two men dressed in full tactical gear. "Report gentlemen."

"Yes sir. The team is set up and ready to handle any attack."

"Very good, let the men..." Before Shaw could even finish his sentence, the sound of gunfire erupted from the adjacent building. "What the?"

One of the two soldiers pulled out his walkie talkie. "What's the situation?"

Suddenly the little black box came to life. Sounds of gunfire could be heard in the background along with the shouts of the men stationed there. "Sir, we have engaged the target. Single intruder, heavily armed."

"Good. Remember, orders are to capture him alive."

"Understood."

Sarah laughed. "Shaw, you have no idea who you're messing with."

Matching her smile, Shaw replied "Oh I do and don't think I didn't come prepared. These aren't just any soldiers I brought with me. These men are trained to a level beyond your imagination."

"Oh trust me, I can imagine a very high level" said Sarah as she thought about Chuck. Sounds of gunfire continued to ring through the building.

Just as Shaw was going to make a retort, his walkie talkie sprung to life once more. Although this time the voice on the other end was not as calm as it once was. "Commander? What's wrong?"

"What is...ghost...can't find...eliminating...one by..."

Anger start to show on Shaw's face. "Commander, it's one man. Can't you handle it?" Just then a large explosion rocked the building. "Commander? Answer me. Any one on the team, reply." Shaw stood there looking at the little black box waiting for any word to come through. As he turned towards the two soldiers left with him, a dark figure crashed through the ceiling of the building.

Sarah barely had time to register any type of emotion as that dark figure crashed into the two soldiers talking with Shaw. What she didn't notice at first was the two combat knives that also swung down and lodged themselves through the back of the neck and out of the throats of those men. She was not surprised when that dark figure turned out to be Chuck but what did surprise her was the lack of fear in Shaw's eyes.

"Why hello there Charles Carmichael or should I say" Shaw paused and seemed to go into a little seizure before continuing. "Charles Irving Bartowski. From Burbank, California. One known living relative, sister, Eleanor Faye. Ever finish up that degree from Stanford?"

The shock registered onto Bryce and Sarah's faces. They knew the implications from what Shaw had just said; they saw the tell tale sign. Shaw had an intersect. What further confused them was the laugh coming from Chuck.

"Very nice. So the Ring has an intersect. I didn't think you guys had the abilities to create one. Kudos to you."

"You don't seem too impressed, Charles."

"No, not really." Chuck paused for a second. "Not when I'm able to do the same thing, Daniel Shaw. Not too bad of a service record with the CIA. Well, except this little thing about you being Ring that is."

"Very nice, Charles. I didn't even see you lose yourself for a second in the flash."

"Ehh, the whole eye fluttering thing is for beginners."

Shaw laughed. "Well I did just get this thing only a few days ago. Let's get started, shall we?" As soon as he finished, he placed his guns onto the floor near to the prisoners. "Hand to hand ok?"

Chuck smiled as he placed his weapons down as well. "That's fine with me. Just to warn you, I'm pretty good hand to hand."

"We'll see."

Sarah watched as her boyfriend took on the intersected Ring agent. But unlike the time before at the training facility, Shaw seemed to be holding his own against Chuck. If anything, she could even say that he had the advantage. But still her hope laid with Chuck and she continued to watch the two men exchange punches and kicks. The two men moved and fought as if they were characters in a martial arts film: jumping off walls, back flips, extremely close near misses.

Bryce on the other hand couldn't believe what he was seeing; his nerdy college friend knew how to fight. This couldn't be his friend from those years ago who had trouble even confronting women. This was someone different and if he let himself think it, a bit scary.

Shaw extricated himself from Chuck's grasp and smirked. "Not bad, Charles. I have to say that the CIA has really upped their training regiment for recruits."

Chuck smiled. "Who ever said I was trained by the CIA?" Just as the words left his mouth, he started again on Shaw. Except this time he completely overwhelming his opponent. Noticing the confusion in Shaw's eyes, Chuck smiled "Having trouble understanding? Well let me in you on something." Chuck dodged a wild left hook from Shaw and repaid him with a wicked shot to the kidneys, leaving him instantly breathless. "The CIA actually had an updated version of the intersect like yours, intersect 2.0 if you will. But I refused it. You know why?"

Shaw narrowly dodged a roundhouse kick from Chuck but didn't see the backhand that followed it. "Fine, I'll bite. Why?"

He smiled. "Cause it's so darned linear. Like this right here. Intersect sees karate straight punch and it reacts with the best counter. But what if I suddenly change it up to a muay thai forearm to the face." Shaw reeled back from the blow to the head. "Here intersect sees a muay thai knee to the ribs." Shaw prepared himself to counter the knee, but was greeted with a side kick to the chest. "But I'll change it up to a straight kick. Don't get me wrong, the intersect is a good teacher but just has no creativity. So now you see why I didn't get the upgrade; I'm already better than what the 2.0 can do."

Utter confusion filled Shaw's mind He was the CIA's golden boy and now he had the intersect 2.0 in him; he should be unbeatable but here stood a man who didn't even seem like he was working that hard at taking him down. He concentrated on Charles' face; he knew that the intersect should have something more in it about him. These skills were never even mentioned during the first flash. So he concentrated hard trying to force a flash and get more knowledge of who Charles really was.

Chuck noticed the intense stare coming from his opponent. "Trying to ask the intersect who and what I am?" He quickly shortened the space between them and landed a swift blow to the gut. "Sorry to tell you this Shaw, but I'm not in the intersect."

Shaw's eyes widened. "Everything and everyone is in the intersect. The Ring made sure it encompassed the knowledge of all intelligence agencies and police forces. We had access to top secret data."

Chuck laughed. "What I am is higher than top secret, Shaw. What I am and those I work with are beyond the comprehension of the little ol' intersect."

"That's impossible."

"Not really. You and spies like you keep secrets from civilians all the time. This time we're keeping one from the spies."

"You're implying that you're better than us."

"Of course, to the point that you're skills are no better than a civilian's to us."

"Impossible. There's no way."

"Sorry to shatter your world Shaw, but in this world there are agents whose skills make you look like a toddler. And unfortunately for you, you antagonized one of them."

Shaw closed his eyes and focused. He refused to believe that an agent of his caliber augmented with the intersect 2.0 could be so easily manhandled by a mere agent. So he engaged the 2.0 and desperately tried to find a solution. He flashed on some obscure martial art and tried a last ditch attempt to overwhelm his opponent. But just as quickly, Chuck had side stepped his attack and Shaw ended up completely passing him by. One handed, Chuck grabbed Shaw by the back of his neck and slowly lifted him off the ground.

"I'm sorry Shaw; I truly am. The intersect told me what happened to your wife and how that has made you into the man your are today but I cannot let you go knowing that you have an intersect in your head as well." Chuck turned his head and finally acknowledged his comrades still tied to their seats. "Sarah, please close your eyes."

Sarah nodded once and slowly shut both eyes. She knew he didn't want her to see him give the final killing blow to Shaw and a second later she heard the sound of a neck snapping and a body falling to the ground. The next thing she knew, Chuck had come over to them and started undoing the ties to her arms and legs. "Are you ok, Chuck?" As her sentence finished, she saw a fleeting look of guilt come across his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get you guys out of here first." Chuck turned to work on Bryce's binds. "Take Cole and Sarah and leave from the north exit."

Bryce rubbed his wrists as he eyed Chuck up and down. This was definitely the man he knew from before.

"What is it Bryce?" Chuck asked as he saw the look on his face.

"What are you? And where's the Chuck I know?"

Chuck smiled. "Trust me I'm the same man. As to what I am, that's more complicated and best saved for another time. Go."

Sarah slowly transferred Cole to Bryce and watched as the two of them walked out into the hall. She looked up at her savior's face and saw guilt and remorse painted across it. "Chuck, let's go." As she pulled at his hand, she felt resistance to the movement.

"Go ahead Sarah. I need to finish some things and await the clean up team."

Sarah nodded slowly. "I'll see you at the castle." Giving him a hug, she walked backwards into the hall not taking her eyes off her love.

As Sarah left, a long sigh left Chuck's lips. He knew that the situation has changed; Sarah had seen him at his worst and most definitely have changed her opinions. Solemnly, he walked out into the night. Shaw had changed the rules of the game and therefore changed the course of his life from now on. Things will definitely not be the same.

* * *

As Bryce and Sarah carried Cole into the infirmary within the castle, they were shocked to see the main screen come to life and General Beckman looking them over.

"Agents, report. How are you doing?"

Sarah answered "We're fine ma'am. Cole took a bit of a beating and is currently sleeping it off after the shot of morphine we gave."

"That's good to hear. Do you have any need of more medical assistance? I can have CIA doctors there in a few minutes."

"No need ma'am. Bryce and I didn't sustain any injuries; they focused on Cole mostly. He'll have some bruising but nothing too serious."

"Good. I'll notify MI-6 about his condition and arrange for his pickup."

Bryce asked "How about Chuck, ma'am? He didn't come back with us. Any news from him?"

"Yes Agent Larkin, he called in a few minutes ago reporting that he was fine and needed some time to himself." She looked over to Sarah. "Agent Walker please locate Agent Bartowski and tend to him."

"But ma'am, didn't he ask to be alone?"

"That he did Walker, but when did you ever follow orders when it came to Bartowski?"

Sarah smiled. She did have a penchant to disregard orders when Chuck's well being was on the line. "I understand. I'll locate him."

"Good. Larkin, please remain in the castle after Barker gets picked up. We can't have you being seen by anyone that knows you."

"Understood, ma'am."

* * *

Sarah's Porsche rolled into the parking lot of the beach; she knew that this was where she could find the love of her life. This was his thinking spot, where he worked out his demons and made sense of his crazy life. After recent revelations about who he really was, she fully understood the need of this beach locale. She usually opted for fifteen minutes of quiet time at least twice a week before sleeping. She smiled as she saw the sitting form of Chuck, silhouetted against the night sky and the crashing waves. He had his knees bent towards his chest and was resting his arm on his knees. She slowly walked over to where he sat, trying not to interrupt his time.

"There's no where I can run, is there?" asked Chuck as he looked up to the smiling face of Sarah looking down at him.

"No, not from us."

A playful look came upon his face when we answered "wanna bet?"

Chuckling, Sarah replied "ok fine. I meant that there's no where you can run from ME. I'll find you wherever you run and hide." She sat down in the sand next to Chuck. "Talk to me."

"Just worried."

"About?"

"What you think of me now."

"Did you think it would somehow change?"

"I killed people tonight Sarah. A lot of people."

"They were all bad Chuck. They signed their death certificates the moment they went against the oath they took when they joined their agencies. You also saved three people."

"I know but I didn't want you to see me do that."

"Chuck, like I told you before: I love you for who you are. The fact that despite all that you've seen in this world of ours, you still are able to trust people and not be jaded. I love that about you."

"I thought you love my dashing good looks."

"Well that too." Sarah gently nudged his shoulder. "I would be quite the hypocrite if I judged you with stricter than I judge myself. So if you can still love me despite knowing all that I've done, I'm pretty sure that I can love you."

Relief fell over Chuck and he decided to quit sulking. "I love you Sarah."

Warmth fell over Sarah as she saw Chuck's smile. "I love you too." She promptly stood up from next to Chuck and proceeded to walk in front of him.

"Uh Sarah, is everyth..." Chuck didn't have time to finish his sentence as Sarah plopped herself in-between Chuck's knees. She reached over and grabbed his arms and wrapped it around herself.

Letting out a breath, Sarah uttered "much better."

Smiling a bigger smile than he had all day, Chuck hugged Sarah tighter. "So you said you'd find me anywhere, eh?"

"Of course. There would be no place for you to hide."

"I see. I must be special to elicit such devotion."

"I would say so. After finding how good you are in the sack, you're lucky you weren't permanently handcuffed to our bed."

Feigning shock, Chuck answered "I knew it! You always wanted me for my body."

"As if you didn't know" Sarah mocked. After a few moments, she asked "So what happens now Chuck?"

Looking towards the crashing waves, he answered "everything changes. Everything."


End file.
